So I've figured out why I've had a pervasive feeling of dread and despair of late. It's my Sociology class.
This class is a "Capstone Experience" - a Senior requirement that is supposed to be like caramel on pumpkin cheesecake, the crowning moment of my illustrious college career. The main objective of this particular capstone is to spend eight hours a week in an internship, and then go to class and talk about your placement.
Well, I have this happy little assignment at a local elementary school. Everyone else is at detention centers, judge's offices, probation offices, Children & Youth and the like. Each week I am barraged with stories of neglect, abuse and perversion - and those are the light topics from my fellow students. My professor (a therapist), apparently concerned that we might find the world too carefree after such hopeful reports, peppers the conversation with stories from his abundant case files. Who knew a little piece of rural America could harbor so much smut!
I leave each week feeling like I need a shower and an episode of Barney to balance out all of the exposure to society's dark underbelly.
Since I've realized the problem, I have developed some joyful counter-measures. I go out of my way to look at the sunrise and sunset. I smile at as many children as possible throughout the day, wherever I am. I spend some extra time each day counting my blessings and thanking God for them. I find a piece of good news and soak in it liberally, like pumpkin cheesecake in a pool of caramel.
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4 comments:
The pumpkin cheesecake metaphors tell me that your thoughts are hovering over the same culinary neighborhood as mine. Pumpkin cheesecake has been peppered throughout conversation every day for the past two weeks. I'm thinking of it constantly, as evidenced by the fact that my comments here have focused only on this sweet metaphor to the neglect of the meat of your fine piece.
somehow peppered pumpkin cheesecake ruins the image...
I knew you'd appreciate the metaphor!
Barney? Yuk! I would think you would need another shower after that.
Yes, I see the error in my word choice. Perhaps I should have said something like "Pumpkin cheesecake references have been sprinkled throughout conversation..." thus conjuring images of sweet cinnamon across dolops of whipped cream. In reference to your very first post, this episode just goes to illustrate the wisdom we received concerning "the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightening and the lightening bug."
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