Basically, to write well, one must narrow days/ weeks into a single moment-- three minutes max. So, I spend hours every day deciding which moment to choose. Which moment will wrap up the entire day? Or in my case, as of late, which one will wrap up the last couple of months? Could it be the one where I attempt to teach my nieces correct canoe strokes with a broom; or perhaps it's watching my Aunt and Uncle manuever a tandem along the Greater Allegheny Passage; or maybe it's having the privilege of running a 5k with Jerry Johncock, the man who has the 85+ age group record for the marathon. All of this to say, a lot has happened in the last few months and writing so little is overwhelming.
On the bright side, as I've mentioned in past posts, I work in adult foster care. As of now, I help take care of two residents (Bill and Lacey...not their real names). Bill's speech is limited, he tends to sprinkle his acquired language with obscenities* and his behests often sound rude. He's not rude on purpose, but tends to speak in one tone, which is fairly loud and, when put in the form of a request, more of a demand.
Lately, we've been encouraging him to say "please" and "thank you". Most of the time he ignores or claims that he did say "please" and/or "thank you" even though he didn't. Tonight, though, I rolled him to bed, put his pj's on, and turned the lights out. Just as I was leaving he turned over and yelled "Fank you, b****!" Needless to say, my coworker and I raised our arms in fists of silent victory! It felt as though we were saving the world one word at a time.
*Ernest Hemingway censored For Whom the Bell Tolls, using words like "obscenity" and "unprintable" where he would have otherwise put swear words. Sometimes I write down Bill's sentences in the style of the censored Hemingway and it usually comes out something like, "Obscenity, unprintable, mickey fickey, unprintable, obscenity." I find this version quite entertaining and also tasteful--not to mention family-friendly.
