I may have said before, but some weeks I know very early on what I am going to write about, and others I have no idea until the moment I sit down to do it (usually around 4:30pm when I have finished my chats with students and staff). Today, I had a moment of inspiration first thing when the adults (me included) were walking the Early Years children to class.
As is often the case when it has been raining/is likely to rain, some came ready for anything dressed in raincoats and wellies, while others came with their wet-weather gear in a bag. Regardless of their attire, some made a bee-line for the puddles and I thought to myself yes, why not! The simple pleasures of jumping in puddles... why are they seemingly reserved for children or those in the company of children? Why isn’t it ok for any of us adults? It made me wonder why it is that we adults generally don’t do such things. Is it that we have learned that we don’t want soggy feet for the rest of the day, or is it that we don’t want to ruin our shoes? Is it that we have been conditioned not to act on impulse or simply that we don’t want to ‘let go’ for fear of …? Personally, from the rare occasions I wear wellington boots and almost always when it is raining, I do suddenly feel the need to jump in any puddle. When I was younger, I would very much have squashed that desire because that’s just not what adults do, but now… I might just go for it like my friend Rachel would. I love the oppositional side of her nature and I think the reason we have been friends for so long is that we are so different. Maybe now I am more in tune with my inner child, or maybe it is just that my inner child has a louder voice!
This all reminded me of something I had seen earlier in the week on social media (twitter maybe?). It was a video of a dad and his daughter and the tweet was “If you can't do this, you are not ready to be a dad.” I am not going to enter into my thoughts on this particular phraseology (who am I to cast judgement?), however the clip was truly heart-warming. In it, a little girl is standing in a puddle and beckons her dad to join her. She’s wearing wellies but he is in trainers and clearly slightly reluctant to do so… However, he does and, once he gets over the shock of the cold water he has a great time with the little girl. A shared experience and one which I am sure will be memorable (by which I mean the girl will remember it fondly as a flashback to her childhood rather than being constantly reminded of it because it has gone viral on social media). I would hope that we all have memories of such connection with a parent/significant adult from our own childhoods because they are oh-so valuable.
After a real roller-coaster of a week, with some not terribly pleasant occurrences, I am really going for the embracing of, and being proud of, who we are as individuals. Our value this week was respect and what better time to remember that, in order to show respect to others, we must show respect for ourselves. It is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on Sunday (thanks NAE comms newsletter) and certainly something I have been thinking about a lot recently. Way back when I was teaching RS I remember a poem with the first line ‘Colour is Good Lord’ and it talked about the dangers of not seeing colour, for that is when we all appear dirty shades of grey (this was before THAT BOOK by the way) and so we should celebrate difference. I can’t find it online to read again and share, but I will keep trying because it is really poignant.
This week’s Spotify? I decided to go rogue and searched for a puddle jumping playlist. I have listened to some really cool, different music. At the moment I am listening to a band called The Paper Kites and Bloom. I would definitely recommend this playlist!
Happy Friday everyone.
P.S. If you’re interested, you can see the clip on:
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