Zen & the Art of Pre-school Selection

Today we spent the morning giving Mama an ulcer and the afternoon healing said ulcer.

At 10am, we entered the gymnasium of a local Catholic elementary school in what I have to say felt like a flash back to every bad science fair I ever faked my way through. We were there for the county's pre-school informational fair. There were tables set up, all of them supporting triple-fold poster boards with construction paper letters spelling out the names of area pre-schools. These posters displayed photos of happy little kids, finger painting and walking who-knows-where, holding hands and smiling. Information regarding various schools were available in photocopied pamphlets and packets and you could sign up for open houses on yellow legal pads. There were no power point presentations or video presentations taking place. Apparently my child will be attending pre-school circa 1982. I had better get him an ET lunch box and a Rubik's cube.

I shouldn't complain, because as low-tech as the fair was, I still practically needed to breathe into a brown paper bag before we had perused the entire room and gathered the aforementioned pamphlets and packets. After only a few minutes of listening to the happy, happy, smiling ladies talk about how much fun my child was going to have singing and dancing and painting and crafting, all while potentially miles away from me, my head exploded and that was the end of that.

I tried to walk it off, thinking, "hey, it's only 3 hours a day, 2 days a week and it's not for another year!!" And then it spiraled to, "It's 3 hours, 2 days a week. Then its all day, 5 days a week. Then...then, ohdeargod, then he's going to go to college, get a girlfriend, get married and I'll only see him on holidays!!!" Apparently Mama's not ready for pre-school.

So it's a good thing that we don't have to really think about it for a while to come. I only went today because I'm constantly hearing how competitive this area is in terms of pre-school and that there are lotteries and waiting lists, yadda yadda yadda. I wasn't all that impressed by anything I saw, so for the time being, I'm not going to lose any sleep over where my child may or may not spend 3 hours, 2 days a week, sometime in the next year.

How did I come to this sense of calm about my child's impending foray into the world of pre-elementary education? I spent the afternoon with the Dalai Lama.

He was in town receiving the Congressional Gold Medal from my BFF, GWB, so we joined a few thousand people on the lawn of the Capitol and watched the love-fest unfold. Nothing makes me giggle more than watching GW and Nancy Pelosi pretend they like each other. As if. Anyway, I thought, how cool it would be for Ethan to be able to say he saw the Dalai Lama, even though he'll never remember it.

I will admit, having to watch the whole thing on a jumbo-tron was, initially, kind of a drag; we showed up while the president was on the screen and there's little as frightening as a 3-story tall image of him. It's like a 21st-century Godzilla movie, with a new antagonist, "The Deciderator". I figured the whole thing was going to be like watching a big TV and I might as well have stayed home & just watched it on the evening news.

But then the Dalai Lama came on and my tune changed. He filled the screen with a presence that was barely contained by the space allotted. Maybe it was just the beauty of his bright red and orange robes in contrast to the trite blue power suit or it could have been the sincerity of the smile (something rarely seen in these parts when political figures are involved), but the jumbo-tron and it's vastness seemed to disappear and we became just a bunch of people listening to the kind words of a wise, old peacemaker.

He talked about his mother and about Tibet. He talked about our responsibility to care for each other and our world. I missed quite a bit because for most of the afternoon, Ethan was more concerned with running through the crowd (expect a post in the coming days where I give airtime to the angel/devil debate about toddler leashes, please...) and deciding which snacks he wanted to eat than in being enlightened and motivated to make a difference in the world. Oh well, maybe the next time he sees the Dalai Lama he'll sit still and take notes.

Anyway, here are some pictures from our day...

Ethan ignores The Decider as he waxes...um, poeticish(?!) on the jumbo-tron.

While I was tempted to take pictures of the mulitudes of buddhist monks roaming the grounds, Karen wisely advised me that doing so would shoot my "tourist value" up into the stratosphere and we locals will do anything to avoid looking like a tourist. So as non-challantly as possible, I snapped a couple pics of some Tibetan flags.

Me and my bonsai tee are totally zen, Mama.

First we saw him on the screen, televised from inside the Capitol as he received his medal. He came out shortly after and addressed the crowd.

You'd think I could have slapped on a bit of make up. It IS the Dalai Lama, after all. Jeez.

Hmmmm. Should I have water or milk with my gold fish? What would the Dalai Lama do?

Apparently the Dalai Lama had a 4pm tee-time after his big speech at the Capitol. Or maybe it was just really bright and he couldn't see his speech without the visor.