Back To Basics

I thought this time, I would try things a little differently with my blog. Instead of embracing technology and typing things up, I've decided to do things the old fashioned way... with pen and paper.

God, my handwriting is awful!

You see, back in 'my day', that's how we did things in school. I first learned creative writing with a pen and several pieces of paper. You didn't type up a single thing. There were editing marks all over your first draft, in a different coloured ink. Your final draft was still handwritten, but had to be in your best handwriting.

Things were much simpler then... everything in life was new, hence it amused and inspired me to write. You didn't think about political correctness or worry about offending anyone because all your thoughts were... well... as corny as it sounds, pure and innocent.

Enough with the flashbacks... back to the present.

It's not that there's nothing happening around me that inspires me to write anymore... there's lots of things. Lies, political maneuvering, backstabbing, anger... and that's just during my drive to work. By the time I picked up my pen just now, I've experienced more events than a soap opera. Problem is, there's nothing positive that really stood out.

Adult life seems to get more complicated with every waking moment. You deal with problems, only taking the rare five minute break to come up for air. Little amusing events are scarce.

Have you noticed that if you hear a funny joke at work, you get excited when you get home and tell the joke to your loved ones? You start off with "I heard this joke today..." Do you realise that the highlight of your entire day was ONE joke? This is such a contract to when you were a kid... you come home from school and won't stop talking for two hours about what you did that day...

No wonder kids say that adults are boring...

There are several methods out there that's supposed to keep you from going insane. The first being "work hard, play hard"... In other words, work like mad during office hours (and then some), then party like mad afterwards. Do you know how much 'partying' I have to do to totally erase the events of the day from my mind? (That was meant to be a rhetorical question, though in the past, I have tried to quantify it... the closest answer I ever got was "WTF!?")

Second theory is to do something you love. There's a problem with that... let's use an example of a tennis player named 'Andre'. Obviously, Andre loves to play tennis. But then, to remain on form, he has to train non stop. I don't know about you, but if HAD to do something I love for eight hours a day, six days a week, I would go nuts. After all this training, Andre has to cope with the pressures of winning his matches... not to mention bad calls by the line judge.

So here's my theory... work and play at the same time. Keep the workplace alive. Joke around while you work. LAUGH!! Some people do not agree with this method, citing low productivity as a result. But how much productivity could you achieve if your staff is busing bitching about the work? Make the workplace as fun and enjoyable as school was (I'm referring to the early primary years... not the exam driven rest of the school life).

Life doesn't have to be complicated or frustrating or every bad adjective you can think of. When face with troubles of adult life, go back to basics - be a kid.

Bullies...

I've always believed kids should be disciplined... It was the way I was brought up. When I was growing up, there was a list 32-pages long that outlined everything that I CANNOT do... ok, I'm making that up. There was no list. Simply put, I had a very strict dad...

I have passed everything down to my son, in a sense that I'm very strict. And one of the things I've taught my son was how to treat others... as in do not fight with other kids, no hitting, etc...

Now here's my problem... because of the way I've raised my son, he has no idea how to deal with bullies in school. My son is being bullied!!

He just started kindergarten in January. This is his first time 'mixing' with other kids. I've had a maid since he was very small, and before that he would stay with my parents during the day. His only friends have always been his cousins. He was the youngest up until recently when my younger sister had a baby. So all his cousins would really take care of him... it's either a sense of responsibility on their part, or they are just afraid of me (I could be quite fierce with kids).

Anyway, my son has come home numerous times with cuts from falling down. Upon 'investigation' (hard to get a straight answer from a 5-year old), it seems that his 'friends' were almost always the cause of his falls... Now you can always assume they were goofing around and he accidentally fell, but last Friday, it seems that one of his friends slapped him in the face...

Now here's the dilemma... should I erase the discipline I've instilled in him for the past 5 years and tell him to just beat the crap out of his friends, or should I tell him to just tell the teacher (which he doesn't seem to do... I've spoken to the teachers before and they had no idea... my son has never 'reported' any of the incidents).

I'm actually at a point that I want to pack a small metal pipe in his bag and tell him to 'defend himself'... but that's just not the type of person I want my son to be... I don't know how to advise him since, well, I've never been bullied...

Now you may be surprised to learn that I've never been bullied... I'm underweight now... so imagine me in school... plus, you throw in the good grades in school, and interests in things which would be considered 'uncool' (such as Star Trek - though I wouldn't call myself a 'trekkie' and walk around saying "live long and prosper").

I guess there were two factors that determined my 'bully-less' school days...

First, I grew up in Toronto. Now I'm not sure how it is in other places, but in Toronto, there were a lot of primary shools... so that meant that each 'graduating' class was only around 20-30 people. That made everybody quite close... so by the time I got to high school, I suddenly found myself still mixing around with the people who ended up in the 'cool' group... So I was, for lack of a better term, 'cool by association'... that also meant that I go way back with even the bullies... in other words, I knew 'low people in high places'...

The second factor was the education system in Canada. In high school, you get to choose your elective subjects... So I took things that interest me such as drama class (I still love to act), gym class (I'm not that bad at sports... not good either, but still not bad), and shop class (nothing more macho than to work with oxy-aceteline torches and car engines). And amazingly, the cool kids took those as well... I also tried out for the varsity baseball team (I didn't make the cut, but with good reasons... the seniors had arms bigger than my thighs... there's no way I can throw further/faster than them). I guess the fact that I tried showed that I have balls... that's like currency in high school...

I did have friends that came from schools outside the district, took boring classes, didn't play sports, but yet had interests which were deemed 'nerdy'... felt sorry for them, but nothing I could have done...

Now back to my son's dilemma. I can't apply any of the things I did in school to his situation. I don't want him to resort to violence... I want him to be like me... a lover, not a fighter ;)...

I guess I'll have to go talk to his teachers again. He's still young, so I doubt he'll mind having his dad fight his battle for him... SuperDad to the rescue!!