Fortune Cookies And Sometimes They Are Accurate

My third age grandson is growing physically and mentally. It is so wonderful at this age of mine, 81 and husband Jerry at 85 to see the marvel of younger grandchildren prospering in good health and happy days. The elementary school he attends in Virginia has designated every week for a whole week to celebrate each individual child. His week is this week. The first day, mom had to make a poster with pictures of him. The second day they read his favorite book from home to the class. His now is Uncle Wiggily by Howard Garis and all the stories are from ones my Dad would read to me. I found this book on the internet when I typed in Uncle Wiggily and ordered this book for him and one for his four year old sister ( my only granddaughter).The third day of celebration is a short letter, his Dad writes all about him. The fourth day Dad or Mom comes to school and gets to eat lunch with their child. The fifth day, the classmates all in his first grade class, write letters about him. He is a very well-liked child in the class and so the letters should be sweet. I think this a marvelous idea on part of the school to enhance a child’s image about him or herself and celebrate and commemorate the child in front of his peers. My friend Jim in Savage, Maryland received after his Chinese meal in a restaurant yesterday the following words on a fortune cookie. “Your heart is pure and your mind clear and your soul devout.” How sweet and how dear. Children for the most part even though they speak their minds and often tell the truth about things; have hearts that are pure and devout souls. If only, we could all keep ourselves that way, the world would be better. We also would feel better about our own personality. Celebrating anything is cause for happiness. It need not be a fancy wedding costing fifty or sixty thousand dollars. That is often for show-off on the parents’ part and many times, the bride and groom do not want that extravaganza for their nuptials. Often, that money could be put to good use, if the parents gave the new bride and groom that money not spent and they used it towards a down payment of a home. When we ballroom dancers dance at a social dance, there are many show-offs among us. Some get up on the dance floor and try to take over the floor with their fancy footwork. This is detrimental to other dancers who may get in “their way” as they dance in a simpler manner. These show-offs do not often think of whose way they are in and how accidents can occur. The fancy dancing is made for competitions or places that are not packed with other social dancing folks. Sometimes, these S.O. (show off) people have the opportunity to do just that, because the dance they may be doing is not usually done by everyone, especially new dancers. Then they can display their active, pretty dancing without involving others being in their way and they in the others’ way promenading down the dance floor. Many times, when we first started to dance in 1977 and were new and felt inadequate about the quality of our dancing; there was a man named Jerry (not my Jerry) who would ask a lady to dance and then he would correct her, pull her aside and try to tell her what she did wrong. The studio owner got lots of complaints about him, because he was sending a bad message to the lady. Encouragement of new dancers is the most important word, not discouragement. One lady after his lecture to her on her bad dancing, never came back to a dance again. The studio owner told him that if he ever did that again, he was no longer welcome there. That was a great thing. To celebrate some accomplishments at his school does is the most important thing we can give to a person. To diminish their thoughts about themselves is a poor way . I write on Patch and on the other websites I write for; that my encouragement instills in them, that they can dance or even do another hobby regardless of their ‘now’ age and that I should never stop with my enhancement of feelings about themselves. I have never met almost everyone that I hear from via the emails and yet, we are all friends forever. Some live as far away as Ikuko and Steven Behr do. They are going to Hawaii next month to teach their yearly dancing class to the people there. They in their way embellish and complement these folks’ feelings about their own self. They all look forward to the couple coming with great anticipation. This too, is a week of celebrating the Hawaiian men and women and the kids' celebratory week at elementary school. Distance is not a factor; we are friends via email, and all my other readers and I am friends and celebrate that every time we email each other. Email is a powerful way to have friends you would never have ever met in previous years without a computer. So go out and have yourself a celebratory week like my grandson is having. Day one, you can make yourself a collage of some photo of yourself and your family from then and now. Day two, read your favorite book. Day three, write to you, a sweet note. Day four, have lunch or dinner with your favorite person or child. Day five, write to me and I will send you a complimentary letter via email if you tell me about your victories. elitajerrydancing@outlook.com Celebrate what you are and have and be proud of being who you are and who you may want to be. Your heart is pure and your mind clear and your soul devout. Great words from the Chinese dinner fortune cookie. ELITA SOHMER CLAYMAN FAIRFAX STATION PATCH