This year I didn't come to Nica until after Christmas. I got a kick out of being with the grandsons and my friend Ron and my charming daughter and so on for the Holidays. I left right after Christmas and got away from the cold and damp of Portland, Oregon just in the nick of time. I missed the sleet and freezing rain and snow. When I got set up at the pool, my friends from Saskatoon, Canada were missing. They arrived today with a tale of woe about how they were delayed three months.
A bad fall, cracked vertebrae, tremendous suffering. We caught up with news of health, kids, the dropping Canadian dollar, all the stuff one catches up on. They had a miracle story about their daughter. We shared that joy. Then we got down to politics. Canadians I meet are mostly appalled with what we put up with in the US. They can't understand why we don't ask for and get a lot more from our taxes. You know like free health care, free high quality education for everyone at all levels, and on and on. I have to remind my dear Canadian friends that we have a much more important job to do here than feeding and housing our children and other soft stuff like that. We have to maintain 900 or so military bases around the planet in 150 or so countries and wage so many wars. Drones and bombs don't come cheap. We have to bring prosperity and freedom and safety to all these places. We have to do the Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Iraq, miracle over and over. It isn't easy being us.
They spoke about their pride in their daughter's work in Guatemala, being a voice for the women in mining villages and bringing their struggle out into the light of day.
I ended up telling them a story involving my nieta which I already told on FB. Isabella was so ready for first grade. She knew that it was the big show. Preschools and kindergarten were fun but now she was in a GRADE. She was straight and walking tall and so happy to meet her first class.
When she came home, it was even better. She had learned something important and they were going to study more about it. "What did you learn?" I asked. "Economics." "Huh?" "Economics is the exchange of goods and services for money." She was perfect. She even had the tone of a teacher when she shared this wondrous news.
Marin County, California. Marin is, I guess, the northern suburbs of San Francisco. It is blessed with beautiful nature and weather. It is expensive but mostly not too showy. Like most bedroom communities, there can be a pretty serious commute for many who work. One of the malls is called "The Towne Center". That says a lot to me.
But this curriculum floored me. My memory of the first day of first grade was being in a circle and going around and introducing yourself and giving off an important bit of information like "I have a kitten", or "I have a big brother" and "I like to play soccer". Then the teacher would pass out a few supplies and tell us about the lunch room and then we would play a few games. We would often get the bit about team work and respecting your neighbor and being polite and raising your hand with a question. But studying ecomomics. Never.
A bunch of things are going through my mind. The next four weeks, the teacher was very creative and they made stores and had a lot of fun and learned a lot. I am all for that. When I mentioned that I was shaken by the crassness of this being the leading lesson, I was slammed by a bunch of people. Yes, I could have learned a lot from this lesson at some point in my life. Yes, money is important. Yes, the kids enjoyed it. But, for the 7 1/2 months I spent in Marin, I also saw the toll the keeping up with the Jonses was taking on a lot of people. I saw stress and competition and jealousy and tons of people on antidepressants. Nothing wrong with any of that, But I guess I am still shocked that what I would call the higher value things didn't take the lead. Compassion, peace, acceptance of differences.
I am not worried about my grand daughter because she has a great big heart and a lot of compassion. I am concerned about the direction my country is taking over and over again and what might be a counter force to that direction.
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