Fall, again. My mind rebels against the idea of turning on the furnace and wearing a coat, if only because we’ve had warm, sunny days lately. But the house was 59◦ today so even I had to admit that was too cold to not run the furnace.
I’m far enough into the semester to know I’m going to survive and it’s not that hard so far. At first, I could hardly stand my Chinese professor’s lectures. But when he says “trading systerm” and market datar” in the same sentence as “nowerdays,” I hardly notice anymore. Not sure this is a good thing. He’s very smart and knows a lot about economics, foreign trade, currency exchange, etc. but the language barrier keeps him from effectively transmitting the information to most of the class.
Nathan keeps saying funny things and I record them so I won’t forget. His latest was, “Mom, what’s Somalia?”
Me: It’s a country in Africa.
N: No, it’s a disease. It’s in my book. (One second after.) Somalia! It’s really awful.
Me: Somalians might beg to differ. Show me. (totally went over his head, as I knew it would.)
So he looked it up and the word was salmonella. It's not really funny. He has his father's dyslexia. Let's hope he deals with it better.
I had an epiphany today. Background—Monday night, working in the accounting lab, this lady, possibly my same age or older, was trying to print several homework problems but the printer spit out one sheet with all four pages superimposed on each other. There are computer techs we call for such problems but they aren’t there that late (7 pm) so I suggested she try another computer. This instantly annoyed her so I suggested we try to print them one problem at a time. This made her even more mad. She insisted that she had printed them all at once last semester and that’s how she wanted to do it. I was trying to ascertain the reason she wouldn’t print them one at a time so I asked, “Why don’t you want to print them one at a time? Are you trying to save the 5¢…or…” Then she got positively angry, but didn’t answer the question. In the back of my mind, I was thinking that I would print them on my own personal account for her if that was all that was holding her back. Instead, she repeated that she knew it could be done all at once because she’d done it before and she was going to file a complaint against me. I was a little stunned and started to say that I’m not the tech guy but I could have them fix the problem later. This made her hopping mad. I added, not angrily, that I am hired to tutor accounting students. She cut me off mid-sentence with “Well, I would NEVER want you to tutor me!” and stormed out. I felt disconnected somehow, like I was in the twilight zone, unable to understand what just happened. I live in a sheltered world, where people are normal, affable, and kind. I have only rarely had an exchange like this with someone—perhaps 3 or 4 times in my life and always with strangers. (Likely bcs I never worked in fast food or retail.) What made it so strange for me was the idea that if she knew me or anything about my intellect and personality, she wouldn’t have treated me that way. So today, I thought, “What should I have done differently? How am I supposed to react to people like that?” And again, the thought persisted that if she only KNEW me, she’d be terribly embarrassed for the way she treated me. Suddenly I had a mental picture of the Savior being treated much more reprehensibly. If only they had known he was the very Creator, the person with power who could help them immensely. And then the thought in my mind was,”You react the way He did. With kindness, patience and love.” I said out loud, “Ohhh. I get it now—a little bit.” It doesn’t mean I’m suddenly kinder, more patient, or more loving. But, hopefully, I’m one baby step closer to seeing things as they really are.