As part of the challenge, the Boy and I watched the TED Talk "How Schools Kill Creativity" by Sir Ken Robinson, Ph.D.* This TED Talk is the most popular of all time. He talks about how when Gillian Lynne was a little girl, she couldn't sit still. Her mother brought her to a psychologist who told her that her daughter didn't have a problem: "She is a dancer. Send her to ballet school." Years later, Gillian danced for the Royal Ballet and then became a choreographer.
I heard that Robinson (Sir Robinson? Sir Ken?) wrote The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. I went to the U District library and picked up a copy, hoping to find out what I direction I should take now that my volunteer job is over. A friend of mine posted an article on Facebook about how to find your passion. One question to ask yourself is "What makes you forget to eat and poop?" (I suppose cooking could be a passion that would not create a proper response to this this question, but I digress.) While I am in my forties and figuring this out, I am not worried. I've accepted that my life takes a non-linear path, the unlike Jack, I didn't know what I wanted to do for the rest of my life when I was sixteen.
The next day, The Boy had Lego Club. The Boy is really into Lego Club. (He should have his own blog of stuff he has built out of Lego.) As such, I am one of the co-coaches of his team, knowing that if I want to keep this going, I am going to have to step up. Which is fine. My co-coach though the Boy should have some solo time building the robot. I was worried it would take to long for him to make progress if we only meet once a week. We decided the Boy should work on the robot during the week. The Boy brought the robot home along with a box of Legos to finish building.
Like the little girl who couldn't not dance, the Boy is a child who cannot not build. When we came home, he went straight to his Lego room and got cracking on the robot. I was not surprised. I was not surprised when I had to call him three times to come to lunch. Three hours of Lego Club wasn't enough. Here I have a eleven year old boy who is so focused, and I can't figure out what to do next.
Jack and I decided to take a walk, and asked the kids to join us. It was a beautiful day sunny and in the 80's; probably the last night day were going to have in a long time. We went to Marsh Island and brought Fox along. The Seahawks were playing the Broncos, reviving the Super Bowl of earlier this year when the Seahawks emerged victorious. On our walk, Jack occasionally checked the score. We got in the car to drive home, and Jack put the game on the radio. The game was tied 20 to 20, and went into overtime. When we walked into the house, Jack went immediately to the television to watch the end of the game.
The Boy went upstairs to finish building his robot.
* If I am not British, do I have to call him "Sir?" Just wondering.
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