Sympathy Pain

I visited a good friend of mine in Atlanta a few weeks ago. She is in an alternative lifestyle relationship. They gave birth to a beautiful girl about 15 months ago. The little girl is amazing. Very articulate. Very well mannered. And she loves to flirt. I don’t want to use names, just in case my friend has some aversion to her name being on the web.

We ate our vegetarian pizza from Mellow Mushroom…whose pizza I LOVE, and then decided to go for a walk. I was already in love with this little angel, but then the walk sealed the deal for the entire family.

We were in one of the not so nice areas of Atlanta. Older homes that have seen there better days. I have to admit, I felt alittle out of place in the race department. I hate to say that, because I like to pride myself on my view of race, but it is ingrained, I guess. But soon, I felt very foolish about this feeling, because of this non-conventional family. They knew everybody. People were waving and calling there names out of second floor windows. The girl ran to an older black man, who she looks forward to seeing on the walks. We went into the home of a 105 year old lady just so this little blond haired, blue eyed girl could dance for her. We swapped baby tips with a young black mother while the flirt did her magic on her 9 month old son.

We then saw a few shoes thrown over power lines. Someone told me that originally this was a sign of where drug houses were located. It wouldn’t have surprised me.

“Silly Shoes” she would call out. We laughed a lot.

We found ourselves at a small park. It was this strange oasis of recycled tire under matting and new park equipment. A boy, about 8, knocked the “no parking” sign off its post. My friends scolded him, and then ask him to replace the sign. He did.

So, I learned volumes in those few hours. I still admit that I am scared for Jack to talk with strangers. I want him to know when it is ok. The next week, we did talk to an older man at Sonic. Found out about him and the buildings he owns around our neighborhood. Did us all some good to have the company.

It really does take a village to raise a child. I was blown away by what this family has done to meld with their neighborhood, and what they are getting in return. I hope to be that way.