Pigeon

One of my favorite shirts has Mo Willems's Pigeon on the front.  You know, Pigeon of "Don't Let Pigeon Drive the Bus" fame.

On my shirt, pigeon is reading a book entitled "How to Drive a Bus".  Over top is the caption "Driven to Read."  I love this shirt.  It's comfortable.  It's big enough on me that I can wear it with leggings and nobody is looking at my ass.  It's also full of warm memories.  I picked up this shirt at an ALA convention several years back, and it brings back warm memories of author encounters and library friends everywhere I turn!

Sadly, I am no longer able to wear this shirt to work.  I wore it to substitute teach not long after I bought it. 

Now you know, there are kids you work with when you teach that stick with you forever.  Something about them haunts you, and you find yourself thinking about them a lot.  For whatever reason, they are on your mind.  At this particular school, there was a very loving, very large, very neglectful family.  The kids were delightful, loving, and supportive of each other.  They were respectful of teachers and staff.  But they were woefully neglected.  Hygiene was not a priority for the family.  The kids would come to school in need of clean clothes and showers.  The school provided clothes, but not the showers.  I adored those kids.  They were very smart and very funny, but I knew that life was not easy for them and that the ends very rarely met each other.

This particular day found me back in their school for the first time in over a week.  I'd been thinking about the kids a lot.  We'd been on an extended break, and I was worried that the kids had not seen enough food during that time.

As the doors opened that morning, I was assigned to bus duty, and I stood in the hallway, greeting children and reminding them to slow down.  When I saw the youngest girl of the family, her face lit up and she ran into me, almost knocking me down as she gave me the best bear hug a substitute teacher could ever ask for.  Her older siblings, trailing behind her, saw the hug happening, and they all came and joined in the giant bear hug before they went on about their business.

As they walked off, the teacher working the hall with me looked down at my favorite pigeon shirt with a look of horror on her face.  "Ummm.... did you bring another shirt with you?" 

I hurriedly looked down and saw not only dirty arm and hand prints on my shirt, but this weird set of oily halos.  I looked up at the other teacher in dismay, and said "what"?

"Oh, it's those kids.  They're always so dirty.  Those are their hair marks.  Mom hasn't washed their hair in quite some time.  I'm surprised you'd let them hug you.  Most of us won't let them hug us because they ruin our clothes."

I mulled that thought over as arrival continued.  Think about that for a while yourself.  It's a sobering thought when you really put some thought behind it.

I saw the kids many more times over the years that I substituted.  If they asked for a hug, I would gladly give them one and be damned to my clothes.   Every once in a while, I see the family about town, at the grocery store or the park.  As the kids have gotten older, they've gotten better about meeting their own hygiene needs.  They are brilliant kids, and they continue to thrive.  As they've gotten older, they don't ask for hugs, but they do stop and talk with me for a while!

The hair stains never have come out of my favorite pigeon shirt.  I have tried everything to get them out, but they're just not going away.  As a result, I only wear the shirt around the house. 

When I wear the shirt, I look down and remember the love, joy, and enthusiasm of children.  In particular, I remember a family of brilliant if somewhat neglected children.  I see their enthusiasm, and their need for love and attention.  And it reminds me that ALL children need to feel love and acceptance from the world around them.  It's easy to judge those kids by how they looked, but if you looked past the surface appearance, you were privileged to meet genius kids who have the potential to change the world.  

The bigger question here is - how will they change the world?  For good or for bad?  How will the kindness and judgement of strangers impact their adult selves? 

Food for thought.