Valentine's Day

One can't escape knowing it is Valentine's Day.  Everybody one meets says "Happy Valentine's Day" like it's Christmas.


I called at the hospital, I guessed the volunteer who has just lost her daughter wouldn't be back, and she wasn't.  And I knew the other volunteer, a deacon at Emmanuel, would only go round one floor, so I went round the other.  Larry was engaged with a patient in ICU who was dying and unconscious and her son in the military was stationed at Fort Sill, two hours away.  But it was taking Larry a lot longer than two hours to cut through the red tape to get him to the hospital.  I'd have thought a phone call to the Commanding Officer should have been sufficient, but negotiations have to be done through the Red Cross, who have to have his social security number and dob and didn't.


When I finished and had some lunch there with Larry it was time to go to the Early Childhood Centre with other Kiwani members to read a book to a class of children.  All the children there are kindergarten age, then they go to grade schools when they are six.


To paraphrase the story right down - it was about two little girls who didn't like each other but were forced to play together because their mothers were friends.  One child had every toy a child could possibly want, but was bored and discontented.  The other child only had a cardboard box to play with but she was happy and laughing and had lots of adventures with her imagination and her cardboard box (the children started telling me all the toys they had, so I think they were missing the point, or I wasn't getting it across to them) But at the end the spoiled child realised cardboard boxes were better than toys and when it was her birthday, and she had a lovely new computer, she took it out and was happy playing with the box.   And the two children forced to play with each other became the best of friends.


One child remarked that my voice sounded weird.  I said that was because I wasn't an American (at least I hope that's why it sounds weird)  So they wanted to know where I came from and was it far away  like New York - we were getting a bit side tracked.   When I got up to leave I was shown some balls hanging down from the ceiling, the teacher told me proudly they were studying the solar system.  I privately thought it would be better for them to familiarise themselves with planet earth.