The other day, I was being a good homeschooling mom and getting some worksheets and coloring pages ready for a "preschool" class that has actually morphed into a handwriting/cursive/letter class for all but the two oldest kids. [I told the "olders" of the "youngers", that it is geared towards Pipalicious and Hava-lava, but they could come if they want to help, or participate nicely. ]
We have had great fun in this class, but, as with most things I get engaged in for my kids, at one point or another it becomes the battle of the computer! Something goes wrong, something won't open, the computer freezes, or the printer has some kind of mystical problem with it.
Now, you would think that, being a daughter of a brilliant computer analyst and sister to so many computer geniuses, some of it would rub off. Well....no. :)
So, when the computer becomes a living thing to me, a creature with many evil, ugly heads, reared up to attack, I do the only thing I know how to do: rant, rave, shut it off, and curse the thing. Okay, maybe I just rant a little and shut it off, but these "problems" sure seems to happen often! Right in the middle of a brilliant mother moment, the only thing that seems to stand between me and success is some fluky bug in the computer.
Nice.
So I did what any self-respecting homeschool mom does: I walked away from the computer and my nicely planned lesson, and faked it.
*******
Although, that leads me to another thought (imagine that...me?). It reminds me about how in the ancient history times I am studying with my "olders", when the people were ignorant of the cycles of nature and basic laws of the universe (as I am of the computer), the world around them became a mystical land, full of demons and gods at war with one another and the humans (just as the computer problems I face seem to be supernatural and "out to get me").
Hey! And that can relate to our relationships with others! When we are ignorant of people and their situations (which, most of the time, we are), it is easy to be offended by something they do and say. We create in our minds situations where other people are devious and scheming--out to get us!--, when, really, almost always, there is some kind of story behind why they are acting how they are, often with nothing to do with us.
(See an amazing blogpost on this at: http://www.decentlittlecottage.blogspot.com/...hope that is alright, Julie!)
Ignorance sure isn't bliss, sometimes. :)
My friend shared a story in Relief Society many years ago that relates to this: She said that she often has a problem with "road rage". She read a story about another woman who likes to make up reasons why people are behaving poorly on the road: i.e. perhaps they cut her off because they were in a rush to get to the hospital to have a baby. Well, my friend, being the good woman she is, decided to commit herself to applying this.
The next time someone cut her off and she felt her temper rising, she raised her clenched fist at the person, shook it, and shouted angrily (in her car, of course): "Have a nice baby!!!!!"
Good intentions :).
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