Drumming and Heartbeats...

On June 22, 2008 in Ithaca, NY, the world's largest human peace sign was formed.

"In an effort to promote world peace, and to establish a world record, close to 7,000participants gathered to form a human peace sign at Stewart Park in Ithaca (NY)...The human peace sign was inspired and organized by Trevor Dougherty, a sophomore at Ithaca High School. According to Dougherty, the effort was to send a message for peace first, and establishing a world record second..." (http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-38586)

To me this type of event is incredibly important given today's political climate. It brings people together and creates community - community that includes everyone! One hopes.

Today's title refers to Theo drumming as much as to the health of our globe. Drumming...the beat of a person's heart...the beat of the earth...the global heartbeat - a steady rhythm...life continuing, one beat at a time. I think the earth's and the global heartbeat is out of whack. Let's call it a heart murmur. Things are not balanced or regular. They haven't been for a long time - even before the September 11th disaster took place. Maybe this is a cyclical thing that took place throughout history and will continue to take place in the future - but these periods of violence, discrimination and persecution create these heart murmurs that throw everything that happens out of balance.

The September 11th attacks in New York City were bad news for everyone. I feel terrible for those who were killed or hurt and for those whose loved ones were killed in those attacks. But I think that most forget or don't see the additional/side effects that are being felt by people of brown skin and/or muslim faith in the aftermath of this horrible event - no matter who they are. This is not ok. It's a justification for racism. This is never ok. Racial profiling of people because of their skin colour or faith is not ok. Terrorism is not limited to skin colour or a particular faith. We learned that after the Oklahoma City bombings - well, at least those of us in the West did. Yet racism that persecutes brown people persists. And it is getting worse.

Terrorism is never ok - no matter what form it takes and where it takes place. Seems like a lame way to say it, but sometimes the simplest statement is the best. But we all need to think about what fear does and what the use of such fear by governments accomplishes. We NEED to think of the innocents that continuously get hurt. So when we think of September 11th in the next day or so, let's remember those that got hurt or killed, their loved ones - and let's not forgot those that continue to get hurt simply because of the colour of their skin and their faith! And this goes both ways - in the East and the West!

Now on to something a little lighter...Theo's drum set arrived yesterday and he was thrilled!!!! He had a great time! And so did we! And we applauded him the whole time. Which he thought was just the greatest! I'm attaching a couple of pictures below of his drumming efforts. I'll try to take a video in the next day or so, so that you (Theo) can see how much fun you had with this set when you first got it!!!!





Source of the peace sign graphic:
http://a.abcnews.com/images/Technology/ap_peace_sign_080623_ssh.jpg

Catching Up

Today's blog entry is going to be about catching up on all the things that I have not yet talked about that happened recently. I really want to make sure that Theo is able to read about these things if he wants to when he is bigger. Yesterday, at the Labour Day Picnic I met a guy who I think is autistic, but had a very interesting talent. After asking me for my name he asked me for my birthdate. After less than a minute of thinking about it he told me that I was born on a Friday. Then he asked me for Theo's birthdate and told me that Theo was born on a Thursday. He was correct about Theo and it was great to find out what day of the week I was born.

My mother does not remember these things. Which is fair enough. I just want to make sure that one way or another I record these things for Theo. It's fun for me to do and hopefully it will be something that makes Theo happy in the future. And in many ways it is a diary for me also.

So...here is today's entry. On August 9, 2008 Jamie, Theo and I went to the wedding reception of our friends Matt and Liz. Matt and Liz are our neighbours and absolutely wonderful people. At their reception they had a couple of bands playing. Theo loves music and he loves drums. So he asked us if he could go and play on the drum set that was being set up at the time. We told him that he would have to go and ask the band, which he promptly did. When the band's drummer said that it was ok, he got Jamie to help him get onto the stool, took the three drumsticks that he found on the snare drum, wedged one of the drum sticks under his...ok, I'm just going to say it...under his ass and started using the other two (holding them at the end and not at the middle of the drum stick - exactly how you're supposed to do it). And he did a drum roll and other interesting rhythms and even used the cymbals! It was absolutely amazing!!! And he was drumming so hard that he at one point lost one of the drum sticks. So he picked up the one 'on reserve' and just kept going!!!

At one point he pointed at me with his drumstick and said 'Mommy, dance!'. So I danced to his drumming! :) Anyway, I didn't have my camera with me at the time, but once I remembered that my cell phone could take pictures I used that to capture some of his 'performance'. Here is one of the pictures I took.



About a week ago Jamie and I bought Theo a kiddie drumset on Ebay. Wish us luck! *grins* But to me this is just great! If he likes to drum and is any good at it eventually if he even sticks to this - who are we to stop him! I think this is great and so does Jamie!