I thought I’d share a Muck story from his early years. I shared this with Leah today and thought I’d share it with you here.
I don’t care how much of an Avatar you are, when you are 5 years old, there is no filter!
Andrew and I were in the post office when he was about 5 years old. Now you have to understand that Martin is a minority in his own country of N. Ireland being a (recovering) Catholic. He tried to claim his minority-ship here! (I make up words as I go ;-) ) I told him “Yea, you are a white educated male, it ain’t gonna fly here dude.” He is very much aware of discrimination having been discriminated against growing up as a Catholic. We never taught Andrew that anyone was less than us because of race or religion. Martin knows what that feels like. There was never racial slurs in our house. We treated people the same. So this next incident really freaked me out. Not to mention embarrassed the living daylights outta me!
We were standing in line at the post office when Andrew says quite loud, “Mommy, shouldn’t the brown person be in the back of the line?” There was a “brown” person ahead of us. You can imagine the absolute horror on my face when I heard this. Not thinking I said “What!?” What does any 5 year old do when asked “what?” They repeat it LOUDER! Honestly! Where was my head!? SO Andrew proceeds again WITH an explanation this time. How lucky am I?!
He says, “Aren’t the brown people suppose to be in the back of the line and not in front of us because we are white?” I was feeling faint and weak by this point as I felt the blood draining out of my head. I was mortified! I was feeling weaker by the second, vision was getting blurred, I almost soiled myself, thinking I was about to have a stroke! Where on Earth could he get this information? Then it hit me, it was February and what is February? Yup! Black History Month. He heard it in school but didn’t realize it was HISTORY. He was thinking it was that way now!
Even though I set him straight right then and there explaining it was history and NOT the way things are now, the look on the “brown” woman’s face was that of unamusement. Maybe because we were at a post office in front of a trailer park in a known red neck town, but the woman wasn’t buying it. Yea, I slinked outta there as quick as I could with a stroke nipping at my heals!
Ya gotta love kids, right? It’s like a law or something isn’t it? We have to love our kids? :-D
IT’S ALL GOOD!
BTW those of you who haven’t yet, ck out the post 2 down to the link to light a candle for Andrew. You are the first here to be able to do it before I advertise it on a bigger scale! I see the readers of the blog has gone waaaaaay down! The ones who have been truly inspired by Andrew are the ones that still come here. Thank you!
Still reading, not always posting! Your story reminds me of the time Tria(age 3 at the time) and I went over to our neighbors. She looked around and told the neighbor, “Your table is dirty. You need to dust your furniture.” I swore up and down to the neighbor that I’ve never commented on her housekeeping in front of little miss tell-it-like-it-is. From that point on, we called her Tell It Like It Is Tria, and she always does to this day. I don’t think she had a filter until she had to learn bedside manner in chiropractic school. She’s still really blunt if someone’s not following her instructions.
Some of us are still here ((((Connie)))) just haven’t felt that I had anything to add to the post. Didn’t want to add just dribble! ;-)
I have lit two candle for Andrew and will keep lighting candles for as long as there are candles to light. ;-)
Love and hugs,
Leila
LOL!!! I can just imagine what you must have felt when he said that. LOLOLOLOL!!! And I can imagine what went on in “Ms. Brown’s” head too, being brown myself, and sometimes facing racism. Thankfully Natasha never said anything embarrassing while growing up..she was strangely a very serious child (infant too). But I am not sure what Ujjwal is going to put us through. I was the most embarrassing kid a mum could have!! There are way too many stories to tell. But I am sooooooooooo glad Natasha is nothing like me! LOLOLOLOL!!!! I don’t think I can handle a kid like me. Ujjwal on the other hand is scarily like me in many ways. So in a way I am waiting for him to talk, but in many ways I am not! LOLOLOL!! And you know why! hahaha!!
Kids DO say the darnedest things don’t they? That wasn’t the only time either. Good luck Swati with Ujjwal! They say pay backs are a bitch! LOL LOL
Sometimes I get lonely on here and don’t know if anyone is reading when there is no one posting. Yes, I am still a big baby about attention and wanting to know if anyone is still out there. Yes, I am a high maintenance blogger. :-) If I was busy and had a life, it probably wouldn’t matter as much. I know, who am I kidding I hear you say? Once an attention ho ALWAYS an attention ho, right? :-D
I will be starting the big campaign for candle lighting soon and start a new group on the candle site for Oct 22nd.
I will be getting Martin and Andrew on the forums Sunday or Monday. I put Martin on notice that there WILL be hell to pay if he doesn’t get on! Stay tuned there. I have posted a few more questions.
YAY tomorrow is the ICDI conf to see Doreen, Greg Braden and Brian Weiss! Soooo looking forward to being in the energy again. We thrived last year when we went. We cleansed our selves of the hospital ick and refueled our Spirit. Time for a top up!
Happy cleansing Connie! I sooo wanted to go too.