The Inappropriateness of Us

Thailand is stairs. Usually I don't mind, but this year my knees are going out. I have one bad knee and one worse knee. I wasn't going to climb to the top of the temple because of my hobbling one step at a time gate, but then I did. People can go around, right?

As I climbed the stairs, I heard and older woman behind me say, "I wasn't going to go up, but she is. And she takes stairs the same way I do."

On another side note, I was asked to give a closing prayer at church Sunday. We had just completed a lesson on cheerfulness and gratitude through our adversities, so I was a little choked up - ok, I might have cried. After the prayer a woman told me how wonderful she thought I was. In an apparent effort to console me, she said every time she feels down, she looks at me playing the organ and raising my seven children, and she feels better about her situation. My mother is quick to quote Job. "I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all." (Job 16:2)

Today I am laughing about my ability to make others feel better about themselves. Even though it sometimes makes me feel bad to hear that others think I have it so bad, life is good. The cool thing about my family is that we do what we want. The sad thing is that our choices may not be what others expect...

In other words, I don't think we have it worse than others. I just think that because we make non-standard choices we get out of step with the mainstream. At certain times, our actions may even be interpreted as inappropriate. (Sometimes we notice that after the fact and then we are so glad for a large family because we can all laugh together). I have some video examples of this.

We were asked to provide some entertainment for the dinner honoring graduating Native American students from our local school district. Because it would be a mostly Native American audience, the boys decided to sing a song with a Native American theme. So here they are singing Rocky Point.

They were asked to do an encore. They sang the Peter LaForge classic "Drums" because of its message regarding education and how not all education can be found in a book.

Post performance, maybe it wasn't the best pick for the audience. A misstep due to the Inappropriateness of Us. And so we smile and carry on.

This weekend we were asked to perform at a Ukulele Festival. We missed the Bach festival this year, even though we had an idea of what we wanted to perform. So we decided that we would play our Bach piece at the Ukulele Festival.

Bobo is amazing with her quick finger picking on this Cello suite. The rest of us tried to keep up with chording underneath. As always, we did better in rehearsal, but we didn't not start and finish it here. We finished up with some ukulele circle classics.

Which I suppose wouldn't have been so bad if all the other performers hadn't done the one guy, one uke hipster schtick. Totally out of step with the evening again. So in the end, all we can do is laugh at the Inappropriateness of Us.