I have been talking to Jon Tanny Olsen which is long for Jon Tanny
and most adults call him Jon. He at least has a street or road named
after him. Now he married the pretty
little Pam Stamper and she is prettier today. Well that is not the point
just editorial.
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| Jon Tanny Olsen and my Mom |
We got to talking about when we grew up we both had ADD or ADDHD
(high definition ADD, that is a joke so don't get your underwear in a wad).
Now if you are prone to calculating what that means it means at least 40%
of our class in Grainola had the problem. However I would contend that
Hugh Allen Jones belonged in the ADD club which would mean we had 60%.
Now Eddie Harris was not in our class but he would carry that title in my
opinion. Well we had a few good laughs about our active minds.
What I loved about the Grainola and Shidler teachers is they knew
how to keep us in line and focused as much as possible. In fact I would
say that those teachers loved us and cared for us more than we ever knew or
appreciated, at least until later in life when we slowed down to just think
about it for a minute.
Just as a side note if you include the Shidler crowd the list gets
much larger and I for sure don’t want to leave out Johnny Payne (most teachers
called him Pain in the Neck) later to be known as “The One Armed Bandit”.
Yes, I am crossing over the line in opinions that are based on
common sense rather than medical diagnosis but teachers respected the students
and students respected the teachers and ADD labels did not exist that I
recalled. What I am suggesting is that someone with a very active mind just
needs challenged and the outcome will ultimately be based on the decisions each
of us make along the way. The teachers never failed us. We may have failed the teachers expectations.
Now the next point we discussed was there were literally NO
handicapped children in our class. In fact we could not remember
anyone in the entire school. The reason
this is so amazing to Jon and me is there are so many in the community
today. Why?
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| Preston and Leann Harris Theurer |
Well that brings me to tell you about a blessing to my family in
that we have a child with Down Syndrome named Preston. I will probably mention him a thousand times
over the years but he brings a dimension to life that is greater than you can
imagine.
He keeps things simple like his love for music. He loves all kinds and can remember every
word and when the song comes on the radio he can immediately tell you who is
singing. He remembers everyone’s
name. Preston thinks everyone is his
friend and treats them special. Just
yesterday Shouna, my wife, and I were talking about how these adults with
special needs or mental challenges love Jesus.
They are not messed up, sophisticated and have deep spiritual
insights. They don’t argue over
differences from one church to the other.
They don’t care if you are Catholic, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Baptist,
or even Jewish. In fact one of the
adults we know who sings about Jesus is Jewish. These adults don’t judge you by your looks,
your religion, how pretty you are on the inside or the outside, how you talk,
or your skin color. They just don’t
judge.
So what do you learn from the Osage?
·
All folks
are valuable and bring spice to life
·
ADD
and ADDHD are letters looking for someone with an active mind and don’t necessarily
needs drugs but maybe a little respect for their teacher
·
What we
think is normal may not be normal and in fact the abnormal might be normal and
better
·
Us
normal folks might be the ones who are handicapped with prejudices, opinions,
expectations, and more
Thanks for your time,
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