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Saturday, March 17, 2007

Traditional Irish Fayre

I e-mail my dear Irish pal in Ireland, to tell her about our day here in America. I am duty bound to assist her spouse, since he is an American. The poor man will have had to suffer the watered down version of Irish celebrations in Ireland and will have entirely missed out on the traditional version here, no Leprechaun traps for him. I don't tell her what such a trap entails. I leave that joyful task to her husband, to see if he has any luck translating that one. I hope to transport him back to his happy childhood and St. Patrick's Day school work sheets.

I explain how I have spent the morning toiling in the garden like an Irish navvy, spreading home made "compost" to the consternation of my children. Whilst I stood on the solid clay flower bed in a dust cloud with my fork, we seemed a long way from the rolling green hills. The nearest lawns are those belonging to the local MacDonalds, where verdant, manicured mounds tempt and confuse foreigners.



I send a picture of the children in their sparkly green bowler hats [smooth on the inside]. I don't mention how junior used his; rammed down over his face to squash his nostrils so that he was no attacked by odourous mulch. I tell her of his great triumph in placing an item on his head. I don't mention that the elastic chin strap had to be cut off.

I send her a link to a different site "GNM Parents" as a demonstration of my advancing techy skills, and proof that in the wee small hours, I attempt productivity. My attempts to reach out to the 'normal' population, those parents and children who will grow up and develop in the same generational time span as all of 'our' children. I need to win over that population, make autism less scary, not quite so weird, 'merely' a variation on a theme that they can tolerate, learn to live with, accept? My plan to conquer via humor is slow.

I hear back from her almost immediately via her Blackberry, stuck in some aeroplane en route to Japan. She and her family stopped off for Pizza [Ref 1] after a day out with the horses. But what else can you expect from a CEO of a high tech company, Irish or otherwise.

Three pairs of not particularly Irish eyes look in the same place at the same time on 'command!' [translation = shameless pleading and other psychologically damaging tricks]

[Ref 1] "Real Irish Italian pizza!"

"What I like about the people of Cork," John tells me as we devour the last crumbs, "is how punky they are. Look at what you're eating! It's not national cuisine, but it's not just fashionably international either. They've got the courage to sunder the rules here."

2 comments:

LAA and Family said...

Terrific pictures! It sounds like you all had a blast on St. Patrick's Day! Since it fell on a weekend here we barely acknowledged it. My hubby makes it hard to celebrate it also... he is a Catholic convert, but his English roots run oh so deep...

How do you find it goes when you attempt to reach out to the "normal" population? I'm finding it's getting harder and harder to fit in, much as I keep trying. Our children have been around the same playmates since they were very young. As the children get older everyone is going their own way more frequently, I'm okay with that. What's hard though is that Samuel is standing out more and more. It's difficult to get together with everyone because we have Samuel. I can live with that, but I feel bad for my other sons.

I desperately want my friends to be exposed to autism beyond the mainstream version shown most often in the media(according to which, in my opinion, is that I spend every waking hour agonizing over Samuel and am ready to kill myself), but I don't want to shove it down their throats! I hope by my example I am showing them a different side, but I can't be too sure. I wish I had the savvy to try it in a humorous way!

Laura said...

The pictures are adorable! I have never heard of a leprechaun trap! Is that how you get their gold?

I need to spread some compost and mulch myself. I did a whole lotta raking and yard cleanup Friday, when the sun was out. It's been raining, but the sun just peeked out! Of course, I don't have the compost and mulch to spread yet. Hmmm.

I'll check out that new site!

 
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