{"id":3121,"date":"2014-04-22T06:29:02","date_gmt":"2014-04-22T10:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=3121"},"modified":"2014-04-22T06:40:48","modified_gmt":"2014-04-22T10:40:48","slug":"one-of-the-zillion-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=3121","title":{"rendered":"one of the zillion things…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_1534\"<\/a>I was struck by a conversation I had with my youngest son the other night.\u00a0 Sadly, young Joshua had a classmate pass away a few somber weeks ago.\u00a0 Liam was a year older, only 13.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine.\u00a0 It makes me think of that song where the young gal soberly sings, \u201cTo think that providence would take a child from his mother while she prays… is appalling.\u201d\u00a0<\/i> It makes little sense… so hard to understand.\u00a0 This week Josh and I were speaking of where Liam may be now and what life might be like.\u00a0 The reality is \u2014 with each<\/i> of our budding adolescents \u2014 that we can\u2019t always control the questions that come.\u00a0 That\u2019s a good thing…<\/p>\n

I shared with Josh that I was fairly certain Liam was now free from his once ever-present wheelchair.\u00a0 Josh\u2019s face lit up \u2014 thinking of his friend now running so wistfully and free.\u00a0 Josh beamed, and we laughed and smiled and thought of all Liam could do now that previously confined him on this planet.\u00a0 Those special needs kids are special people.\u00a0 Thinking I was on a celebratory roll, I said to Josh, \u201cJust think… when you get to heaven, you won\u2019t have Down syndrome any more!\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Josh\u2019s joy immediately changed to a subtle scowl.<\/p>\n

Realizing I may have been somewhat ambiguous in my parental encouragement, I attempted to re-address the situation and the ceasing of Josh\u2019s joy.\u00a0 After all, at 12 years old, Josh is aware he has Down\u2019s (just like he\u2019s right-handed and has blonde hair)<\/i> but it has never seemed significant to him (just like being right-handed and having blonde hair).<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t care that you have Down syndrome, do you?\u201d<\/i> I humbly but directly asked.<\/p>\n

No response. \u00a0My affirming attempts were failing fast…<\/p>\n

\u201cJosh, I\u2019ve never seen you care about having Down syndrome.\u00a0 Do you care?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

At that point, my delightful young son looked me straight in the eye and said loudly, \u201cI <\/i>do<\/i><\/b> care!\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

I was a little surprised.\u00a0 It has never seemed to bother him before.\u00a0 There are approximately 400,000 Americans with Down syndrome, and Josh has always embraced this delightful community.\u00a0 But before I could quickly offer any seemingly intelligent articulation behind my thoughts, my wise young son spoke again, \u201cI <\/i>do<\/i><\/b> care.\u00a0 I like it! \u00a0I like the way God made me.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Once again this young man who has taught me more than any encyclopedia or advanced college class ever could, put life in perspective…<\/p>\n

So many of us when experiencing perceived misfortune, focus on that perception; we focus on the misfortune \u2014 on the negative \u2014 on how we are different in ways that appear to many to be bad.<\/i>\u00a0 We begin to think of ourselves as \u201cvictims,\u201d focusing on what we don\u2019t have as opposed to what we do.\u00a0 We then may become quickly paralyzed in that mindset, allowing our victim status to prompt additional unhealthy responses, such as bitterness, judgment, or feelings of entitlement.<\/p>\n

One of the zillion things I appreciate about Josh is how he doesn\u2019t see his disability as a negative.\u00a0 He has never allowed what the world views as misfortune to negate the joy nor purpose of his life.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to tell you that such is also the result of incredible, humble, parental encouragement.<\/p>\n

Well, maybe… maybe a little… It\u2019s actually the way God made him.<\/p>\n

Respectfully…<\/p>\n

AR<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was struck by a conversation I had with my youngest son the other night.\u00a0 Sadly, young Joshua had a classmate pass away a few somber weeks ago.\u00a0 Liam was a year older, only 13.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine.\u00a0 It makes me think of that song where the young gal soberly sings, \u201cTo think that providence … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “one of the zillion things…”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event","category-daily-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3121"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3129,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3121\/revisions\/3129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}