Last Wednesday I was in a funk. You ever have those days? No reason. No explanation. Nothing bad had happened. I'd even slept well the night before. I was just tired and energyless and just kind of BLAH! A bit irritated and probably impatient to be around. Mopey. Ever happen to you?
Well I'd like to thank my two friends Ian and Cameron for pulling me out of it. I was in the science library at Furman killing time before practice and just moping about, trying to work on some stuff for our trip to Barnabas this summer when I came across a video. And that inspired me to find some old Facebook pictures of these two buddies of mine. And I couldn't help but smile, even laugh. The funk broke, the clouds parted. I'd love to share a little bit about these two friends of mine.
Cameron is a young man who is probably about 13 by now. Two summers ago, I had the pleasure of meeting him at Camp Barnabas. Not just that, he was my camper. Let me just tell you, this man is a bundle of energy! He sees the world as if everything was new and exciting, the way a child does. Except he was the energy of maniac to go explore that world! And he gets the googly eyes around the ladies. You know what I mean: the blind stare, stuttering for words, might even drool if she's pretty enough. Needless to say, he doesn't hide his crushes well! Oh yeah, and he has a chromosomal deletion in his 13th chromosome or one of those, which has delayed his mental age by about 6 years and has greatly diminished his social awareness. He takes "No!" about as well as a two-year-old :)
If Cameron was the brains of the operation, Ian was the brawn, more bowling ball than kid some days. Whether it is climbing bunk beds or rolling around in bed naked, the man goes full-steam ahead. You might get his shirt on, and before you got a sock on his left foot, the shirt would be on the floor and his face would be covered with a smile and laugh reaching from one ear to the other. Ian has one great love in his life: Spongebob Squarepants (or as he more accurately calls it, "Ba-ba-diggity.") A little momentum and this man cannot be stopped, no matter the wall in front of him. Oh yeah, he also has a developmental disorder in his chromosomes. It is extremely difficult to understand what he says and his mental age is about half his actual one. Right and wrong are relative for him, although no one would love him any other way!
I have these two men to thank for breaking my funk. I mean look at them! How could you not laugh and smile thinking about these two. And more than anything else: they'd have it no other way! All Cameron and Ian know how to do is have fun and enjoy themselves. Whether it be picking up rocks with pretty girls or sitting in the shallow end of the pool or holding the Spongebob DVD case, it's all joy to them. They remind me that life is mean to be lived and enjoyed, not tolerated. Not "blaaaahed" through. I CANNOT think of them and not smile. It's not possible. They remind me there is joy all around us. Amazing how kids with chromosome disorders can see that better than me most days...
forever unfinished...
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