February 01, 2004

On Friday I was teaching a second grade class and we were reading folk tales (like John Bunyan). We were talking about folk tales and I asked them how they could tell if a story was old or new.

"When I was in kindergarten they read me the same story, so it's REALLY old."
Today in Sunday school I asked our preschoolers if they knew what being blind was (it was the story of Jesus healing the blind man). One girl said, "Some girls have blind hair."
Tonight Paul and I were reading and drinking coffee at our favorite "crepe and coffee" place - Java Vivace. If you hang out in a coffee shop in Portland long enough you are bound to see something weird.
A man came in the door waving an umbrella above his head, in calm, almost robotic-like movements. He never stopped waving the umbrella and came into the room we were in with some other patrons and turned in a circle waving the umbrella all around the room. The whole time he was saying in a monotone voice, "I read the Oxford Collegiate Dictionary. I read the Oxford Collegiate Dictionary. I read the Oxford Collegiate Dictionary." Then he turned around and left just as quickly as he came in.
Paul and I were silent for a moment. We looked around to see what other people's reactions would be. One couple chuckled and rolled their eyes. The barista didn't even raise an eyebrow. No one else made any motion that signified that anything out of the ordinary had just happened in the room.
After a few minutes I had to start laughing, knowing that no one would be paying attention to me, just like they didn't pay attention to the crazy man.