Life Summary for 08-08

I “sat a booth” at my local state fair for five hours today.

Then I collected my children from my mother before meeting some friends who proceeded to keep me company and help corral kids until nearly 10 tonight.

The interesting thing about sitting a booth is that you see people you may not have seen in a long time.  And, of course, you exchange the obligatory How are you? and must make that devilishly challenging choice of how much to say.

Personally I hate “Fine.” as an answer.  Just because it means *nothing* and you might as well not have spoken.

So here’s the line I actually managed to pull off the top of my head for someone who hasn’t seen me since I was wearing my second child (in a sling).

I’m keeping busy (an equally useless alternate for Fine.): three kids under age six, teaching myself guitar and working on a novel. (At this point I get the same twinge as I do when I tell people I’m 29 and add defensively:) I’m almost finished and I’ve had an editor ask me to send it to her when it’s done.

Why I feel this need to justify or explain myself to near strangers who care no more for me than for anyone else in this aimless mass of humanity, I don’t know.

And I forgot to mention at the time I start officially homeschooling my oldest this fall.

But I’ve got another 3 hours in a different booth tomorrow, so I’m sure I’ll get another chance to try and squish it all out.

4 thoughts on “Life Summary for 08-08

  1. Something else: The 5 hours on Wed were for our local CareNet (CPC) booth and the 3 hours yesterday were for the local Right to Life chapter.

    I really appreciated their choice of banner this year: “Abortion is Forever: Get the Facts First,” because it’s really hard to argue against (on-point, I mean).

    Yesterday was mostly uneventful (and cold) except for one lady who came up to me, gesturing at the sign and saying with her chin stuck out, “Well, we all have our opinions about that.”

    “Oh yes, we do,” I agreed and waited for her to lead the conversation. It went some of the usual places before going personal and I thinking about it later I was so thankful for God’s perfect timing: the woman knew a 1-year-old that had been born deaf, and there was so much disappointment.

    I talked about the full-personhood of those “society” may not value, and our privilege and responsibility to care for those weaker than ourselves (with which she whole-heartedly agreed).

    Then I was able to talk about deafness in particular and the effectiveness of signing, even with babies that could hear. I urged her to encourage the parents to contact their local Deaf Community Services (I don’t know what they’re called in the States) so they could meet people who would understand what they’re going through and be able to help them adjust their expectations.

    By the time she left I honestly think she was defused, and more peaceful than when she picked the fight, and it made me so thankful she’d spoken up and that I’d had this slot.

    God is so good.

  2. I really appreciate that you make the time to do Right to Life stuff in the middle of everything else you have going on. We’re working on getting local chapters established in Rhode Island, and it’s a real struggle to find people to do the grassroots stuff like that – sitting at fair booths, doing petition signings, etc. Especially QUALIFIED people who won’t embarrass the organization when they represent us. : )

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