Reply #6: A few things

[Gregorian]

I just wrote this all up, and then accidentally deleted it. So I'm just going to blurt it out this time.


I became interested in trumpet. I was good at it. The school teacher took me out of class each week, and taught me himself. That same teacher would go on to have troubles because of his racism. So had I been black, he wouldn't have been so kind.

As a boy scout, I remember Willie Mays showing up with his son one evening. And I also remember what he must have felt like. As someone who was different, I have felt how he must have felt. A black man in a room full of relatively affluent white kids. In fact, I doubt anyone in that room even knew who he was. And he never came back. I saw that as a real loss. One that was based upon the schism between the two separate Americas.

I also volunteered at the VA hospital after school every day, when I was 15. The chief of cardiology took me under his wing, and began showing me how to interpret electrocardiograms. It wasn't long before I had it under my command. And later went on to work in cardiology.

It doesn't seem like I've given you what you were interested in. But I became a professional musician. And I know it was partly due to positive reinforcement.

I also believe that as kids we are sponges. I've been thinking a lot about this lately. I honestly believe that the trouble with the world isn't due to kids. It's due to adults. And that there is no such thing as child. But there is such a thing as adult. In other words, being mature is pushed as being important, when I have always thought that it is the problem. But aside from all of that, when a child is treated with respect, they can accomplish far more than most adults realize. Adults are just children who forgot how to be free. Now I'm blabbing.

We are mostly not aware nor strong nor confident enough to ward off adults, when we're young. We just accept what they say. When treated respectfully, AND given attention by intelligent adults, children grow to be undamaged and brilliant.

It's easy stuff. Why are so many people screwed up. I think the answer to that is that people often have children as afterthoughts. Then they're a burden.

Well, I had to add more to this post after all. It's such an important subject.