What kind of world do you want?

I received an email yesterday from an old friend. Inside was a very simple message:

The band, Five for Fighting, is generously donating $0.40 to Autism Speaks for *each time* this video is viewed. The funding goes toward research studies to help find a cure. When you have a moment, please visit the link below to watch the video and pass it along to your friends and family. They are aiming for 10,000 hits, but hopefully we can help them to surpass this goal.
If link does not work, copy and paste.
http://www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/
videos/view/id/408214

One, I really like Five for Fighting. Two, Autism Speaks is an organization I truly believe in. The song "World" is so fitting for these videos. It's a song of hope, dreams, and optimism. For a disorder that has few answers, hope and optimism can be difficult to keep.

This May marks my nine year anniversary of teaching swim lessons. Since I started working with special needs children about five years ago, my love for children has changed. I have found that special needs children have this amazing ability to love. On top of that, they have an incredible love for life. While some of these children may test my patience to the greatest extent on some days, I can't help but look back at the lessons each of them have taught me.

Isabel has several muscular and developmental disabilities, but she has never, ever let them get in the way of having fun. In my five years of knowing her, I have never once seen Isabel cry. Trust me, I have a habit of making children cry (I don't exactly let kids get out of things easily, which they don't like!). She always has a smile on her face and is so excited to come swim. When I left my former pool, I unfortunately had to leave Isabel. I saw her parents a couple weeks ago and we caught up on life in general. We were able to make things work out so I am able to teach her again. It absolutely thrilled me to hear that she still talked about swimming with me. I saw her for the first time in 2 years last week and her smile and love for life is enough to make anyone's day. She has taught me that there's a silver lining in life and that a smile can truly make someone's day. Her giggle is contagious and even with her extremely limited vocabulary, she still tries her hardest to convince you not to work but to have fun!

Brandon had a stroke when he was just a couple weeks old, followed several weeks later by open heart surgery. At the age of 3 when I first met him, he was barely walking and didn't really speak. I was teaching his older sister, Kayla, and the mother was having a difficult time keeping Brandon away from the water. We didn't get very far in learning to swim, but he was so fearless when it came to trying out new things. He loved to imitate what I would ask him to do (his favorite was "kickkickkickkickkick") and tried so hard to get himself out of the water. Brandon taught me that you cannot let things get in the way of having fun and enjoying life; for him, he never let his disabilities get in the way of enjoying swimming.

Isaiah and Jayson are very high functional Autistic twin boys. When I first started teaching them 13 months ago, they refused to go under water, wouldn't let go of me, and threw fits when I would ask them to do something out of their comfort zone. The lap pool was absolutely out of the question. My greatest moment with these two boys so far was watching the dad start crying the first time he saw both boys not only jump into the deep end of the lap pool (which originally they were deathly afraid of) and then swim unassisted down the length of the pool. He was so excited to see his boys successful and pushing their fears aside. It has been a long, slow process, but truly worthwhile. Isaiah swallowed too much water one day and threw up all over me and in the pool. We had to shut down the pool to clean it and I told him that we would try again next week. While on my way to the other pool to teach Jayson, I noticed Isaiah was crying. When I asked him what was wrong, he kept telling me that he was sorry he got sick and asking if I was mad. I realized that for him, all he wants is to please people. He gave me the biggest hug when I finally convinced him that I could never be mad at him for getting sick, but that he had to understand why he got sick (blow your bubbles!!). From that point forward, things became much easier. I finally realized what made him "tick". If I could get him to understand that I was so proud of him for how hard he has worked and how far he has come, teaching him would be easier. Jayson is a little different. The praise does little; for him, it's letting him realize that he can do things and that it's not so bad afterall. These two boys have taught me that no two children will ever learn the exact same way and that you have to find what makes them tick, even though it may take several months to find it.

Jessica has Cystic Fibrosis. When I first met her, she had a somewhat limited lung capacity and could barely swim the length of the pool. There were many cancelled lessons due to illness, but when she was having a good day, we really worked. It was hard for her. We pushed her limits. She loved the water, but not necessarily the work. What 10 year old loves working hard? When the doctors noticed her increased lung capacity, they were pleasantly surprised. Swimming has helped her so much. Last I heard she was swimming on a year round team. Jessica taught me that even though the work may be hard and we don't want to do it, the benefits are sometimes so great that that work may not be so bad after all.

Caleb had a stroke in-utero. He is another one that gives 110% all the time. We started out with basic skills and are now working on fine tuning some form. Caleb is funny. He always knows what he's doing wrong and how to fix it, but part of the problem is it takes so much effort for him to get both sides of his body to do the same thing that it's just difficult for him. His left leg and arm were affected and he walks close to "normal", but has several difficulties with his arm/hand. He tries so hard to do everything his friends do and goes hunting with his father. Caleb is another that has taught me to never let the little things get in the way. Obstacles can be overcome.

There are a few more children I would love to write about, but I need to save those for another post. These kids have each taught me a special lesson and I will never forget them. I can only hope they know how special they are to me. I not only have the opportunity to work with special needs children while I teach, but also through Special Olympics, where I serve on the county steering committee. Volunteering is probably the single most important thing that one can do to help out these children and adults; they really do appreciate it.

Now, back to Autism. http://www.autismspeaks.org/ has some astonishing facts on their site. A new case is diagnosed approximately every 2o minutes. It affects 1 in 150 children. The worst part is, the early intervention that is so desperately needed is usually not covered by insurance. I was blown away by these facts.

Hopefully one day (soon) we'll have solid treatment plans for this and many other developmental disorders. According to the Autism Speaks website, $30,000 has already been raised with the Five for Fighting charity site. I can only hope that this is the beginning; one of the things on tomorrow's to-do list is to forward this link to everyone I know.

Think Too Much

They say that the left side of the brain
Controls the right
They say that the right side
Has to work hard all night
Maybe I think too much for my own good
Some people say so
Other people say no no
The fact is
You don't think as much as you could
Hmmm

-Simon and Garfunkel, "Think Too Much"

I was listening to CNN yesterday on my drive to work and Robin commented about how Britney Spears was back in the hospital on a psych hold. This segment was promptly followed by a clip of "Oops, I did it Again". I have to admit, it made me laugh. Don't get me wrong, it's a very sad situation, but that clip was just too ironic.

Britney's freefall from fame prompted a rather lengthy discussion on a message board I frequent. For some reason, I can't wrap my brain around this. Why are celebrity lives so intriguing to so much of the American population? I just don't understand it. If I'm going to listen to the news, I would want to be listening to something that was worthwhile. One of my friends posted a link to a summary of findings regarding news interests. I shouldn't be surprised by the following fact:

As is often the case with tabloid stories, younger women made up the core audience for this story. One-in-five women under age 50 listed Ledger's death as the story they followed most closely last week. This compares with only 11% of both men under 50 and women over 50 and just 2% of men 50 and older.

Kohut, et. al. "Campaign and Economy Dominate News Interest; Interest in Iraq at All-Time Low". The Pew Research Center. 30 January 2008 http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=390

::steps up on soapbox::


20% of the young female population chose to follow Heath Ledger's death instead of the upcoming presidential election, the war in Iraq, the stock market's tumble, or the economic stimulus plan. Unbelievable. Yes, he died a sudden death and death is sad, but I can't wrap my brain around the obsession over celebrity lifestyles. That's a scary, scary statistic right there. They're people too; I'd have to imagine they enjoy privacy as much as we do. Aren't there more important things in life than focusing so much energy watching someone's every move?

::steps off soapbox::

I wonder how things will change for this week... I put my money that that same group (women under age 50) will be following the Britney train wreck the most this week. Granted, I don't always listen to the news, but I can guarantee you that as soon as CNN kept bringing up Britney yesterday as one of their top stories, my finger found the buttons to change the channel in lightning speed. As long as people listen, the media will continue to feed us the latest gossip.

Stealing the words from the cervical cancer vaccine commercial... "I want to be one less": One less person who feeds the media's desire to keep covering the celebrity train recks, one less person who thinks a celebrity's break up is newsworthy, one less person who puts Hollywood in front of real news. I like to think I already am one less. Are you?

The real question is... Does our generation (or even America in general) think too much or not enough? Sometimes I think we think too much and overanalyze, but a majority of the time we fall into a "habit" of not thinking as much as we should. If people would start thinking about what they're spending their time in (celebrity gossip vs. real news), where would we be? Instead of reading the latest on TMZ or Perez, would a few more people have realized that they were getting into a bad mortgage because they spent some time researching what they were getting into? Would a few more people be more financially responsible? Would a few more people be able to make an educated decision on who they should vote for?

I'm not trying to say that everyone goes and reads these sites or picks up their US Weekly at the checkout each week, but that statistic above is quite scary. Are celebrity lives really that intriguing? It's a vicious circle. Gossip sells. Increased media attention + upcoming movie/song/show = Better sales. Britney's going off the deep end and people wonder why. I can't imagine the stress of having your every move scrutinized.

I'm the first to admit that I don't know as much as I should about a lot of things, especially politics. I'll also admit that I have my own mindless places/things that I waste my time on. I don't know of a single person who has a perfect balance between thinking too much and thinking too little. Sometimes you need a couple mindless minutes, hours, or even a full day. I guess it's something to strive for. One thing at a time. Habits can change with a conscious effort to change them. Maybe enough people's habits will change and lead to Hollywood taking a back seat to real news on every channel, not just a select few.