Sunday, September 20, 2009

Don't be a jerk. This is how.

This post would be written by Leigh, if she weren't busy cleaning. I'm visiting her, and we just had a little mishap that she insists I need to blog about. She even gave me the title, so how could I turn her down?

Leigh lives in an apartment this year, and she and her three apartment-mates have really taken to decorating. As we were working on putting a pretty black ribbon around the top of the living room walls (to imitate crown molding, apparently), a cactus managed to basically frisk me. It caught the inside of the back of my shorts and pulled itself over, right up and out of the pot. It's a little cactus, kind of round, the size of a baseball, maybe. Still, it spilled dirt. After controlling my giggles, I crouched down to help Leigh reset the poor little guy and replace his dirt and...

I really knocked the whole thing over. This time, almost all of the dirt spilled out of the little pot, and more got on the carpet. I plopped down where I was and said, "Okay, that's it, not touching that cactus anymore!" Leigh sent me after the little vacuum cleaner, and I cleaned up the dirt around the floor while she once again reinstated our cactus friend.

Leigh says, "See? I could have gotten mad. It could have messed up our morning. But I just gave you another job to do that really did need to be done. I worked around it."

She thinks some people in my life need to learn this lesson about trying to work with me, and I agree. Rather than insisting I (or anyone!) do things I can't do, give me a job I can do just fine. Don't get angry, or "don't be a jerk," as Leigh says. Not everything has to be a big deal.

3 comments:

  1. Right - how are you going to get the people in your life who need to read this to see it? I suggest you print it out and post it to them - people always open letters!

    By the way - I printed out your 10 things i need you to know post and took it into school. The teacher who has the autistic girl photocopied it and gave a copy to her support teacher and her mum and there is a copy of it on the wall. You are doing good work here Lydia!

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  2. That's just the way we operate round here! Those that can, do and those that can't - really can't - watch and learn or do something else.

    I also have sent in excerpts from your blog to my girls' school and my friend who is a LSA in a secondary school has got all the staff following your blog. Your influence is reaching far and wide, well, as far as the Scottish Highlands anyway!!

    Thanks for making the effort, we really appreciate it!

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  3. That's really, really good to know, Annicles and Amanda. I have a degree in Elementary Education that I'm currently unable to do any good with around here, so it's good to know that it's doing some good somewhere! Really, really good to know. Thank you :)

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