Coffee & Genius in Tea at the Cabin in the Woods

The coffee packages needed straightening. She was eye level to the small 2 oz vacuum sealed sample sizes of Dunkin Donuts regular dark roast. The larger, one pound, bright orange packages make the small ones look ridiculous and so she took it upon herself to fix the obvious problem. One by one her tiny hands took the small bags, placed them in a open space on the shelf below and lined them up precisely in perfect rows. Her mother, waiting to place an order, would occasionally look down and smile at the curly blond and look away to chat with her friend. At a second look, she saw the bags were not standing up as well as she had wanted. Again she moved them, this time back to where they were in the beginning and stuck them between the orange Decaf’s. As the foiled bags slipped sideways and forward, not at attention as she had desired, she grew restless and frustrated. All at once the little arms dove into the shelf and scattered all the bags in all directions. Her mother looked over and the soft voice of the child simple said, “I messed up the coffees Mom.”

The little girl was probably about 3 years old with a pretty good attention span and displayed the skills of categorizing, sorting and organization. These are skills I have tested so many small children for over the years and here, in front of me at the Dunkin’s, she did this without prompting and self-consciousness. Her intent focus and need for order was refreshing as I saw an emerging brilliance and light that, if fostered, will develop into an unstoppable force. My hope is her mother also see that light and allow her to follow it.

More and more the beauty and genius of children is being TAUGHT out of them. They are not give the opportunity to discover on their own, to attempt complex problem solving in a natural environment. We sit on their creativity and try to tell them how to color in the lines, to not just use purple and that moving bags of coffee is not to be done. We teach them to be inhibited and fear what “Others” may think of them if they....
When did we get to so uppity and self-assure that WE have it right? If you ask me, the little girl with curly blond lock at the Dunkin’s has a better grasp on what works than I do. Sure she got frustrated when her small foil bags wouldn’t stand up. She doesn’t have the cognitive ability to know all she had to do was bend the foil a little. But if she had a little more time with them, she would have figured that out as well.

It made me wonder how many foil bags do I still need to figure out? Do we ever really understand everything and know exactly what to do all the time? Better yet, would I have been so bold as to openly admit that I messed up the coffee? Do I have that type of honesty? I certainly hope so. Who knows what tomorrow will bring and if I will have the opportunity to see childish brilliance smack me in the face again. It would be even better if all of us could experience that again, ourselves.

This time next year I will be on Sabbatical and collecting stories of children’s insights and brilliance. If you have a story to share I would love to hear it. It is my opinion that we have a lot to learn from children, more than we will ever be able to teach them. All the stories I collect will be part of a workbook and possibly a book for publication, to use for teaching parents, social workers, teachers, and anyone else who interacts with children on a regular basis to remember just what it means to be a child and to see the world through their eyes.

There are so many other things I wanted to write about. Like my baby girl just turned 30! Last week I had presented at a national research conference, my son saw his daughter’s face for the first time Friday, and Hubby’s book is published and people LOVE IT! Things like, I spent time with my mother and have accepted she is not going to live forever, her filters are gone and that she doesn’t even realize how contradictory she is.
My sisters and I have spent time together - younger sister is hilarious and older sister still a pain in the behind. Also spent time with younger brother - first time in years where we could actually talk - that was interesting. And I found out a couple days ago I had another short story accepted for publication in a literary journal. It was an older story I cleaned up and submitted - not crazy about the piece but sent it in anyway, never expecting it would make the cut. Life is full of twists and turns.

Well, need to grade the mountain of papers scattered across the dining room table so I can hand them back to student tomorrow. Yipee! sigh… I love my job but the sabbatical is coming at a good time. I need the rest. This turning 60 has been a real eye opener.

Until later.