The Christianville Spirit: National Holidays & Mid-Years II

The Christianville Spirit 

The Spirit that Shines Brightly 

June 25th, 2024 – TCS # 861 

 

Happy Mid-Year, My Readers! It is like Saying “Happy New Year” but, It is in The Middle of The Year! Mid-Year means Two Things. Okay, Three Things. 

The First Thing, of course, Is that We have reached The Point of What I now call “Mid-Year”. Between The Days of June 30th and July 1st, is The Middle of The Year.  

 

Mid-Years (My New Holiday) 

So, Last Year (2023), I Invented a New Holiday! 

 So, I figured out that January 1st to June 30th is The First Half of The Year while July 1st to December 31st is The Second Half of The Year. So, Here’s a Question. What if You had a New Years-like Celebration on June 30th going into July 1st where June 30th is “Mid-Year’s Eve” and  

July 1st is “Mid-Year’s Day”. Plus, You would also celebrating The Second Thing! Speaking of! 

 

 

Changing Grades (if You are in School)  

The Second Thing only applies if You or Your Child is still in School, but Overnight, They change into The Next Grade that They will be in. I know a Few People who will become Seniors overnight. Yes, Really. Seniors! Of Course, I know a few Seniors who will be now going to College. That is a Bigger Jump than becoming a Senior.  

 

Two Neighbouring Friends’ National Holidays 

And, Finally, The Third Thing, Only apart 4 Days Two Neighboring Countries have Their National Holidays. Now, One would say that Countries have More than One National Holiday, like The US and Veterans Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, and so on. However, Every Country has One National Holiday that above All Others. 

The Two Neighbouring Friends, The United States and Canada have Their National Holidays within Days of Each Other! July 1st is Canada’s National Holiday, Canada Day and The United States’ National Holiday, The Fourth of July. The Thing about National Holidays that should be Talked about, not Always in a Political Way is about How We celebrate it. Now, Every Countries, It is always Nationalism v. Patriotism Debate on How a National Holiday is celebrated. Some Countries, It is with a Huge Military Parade with Guns blazing; Anthems Playing on Loud Speaker, That is more of Nationalism. In Other Words, You are telling The World that There is No Better Country than Here, Where ever “Here” is! There is Mixture of both like Making Sure that The National Language is spoken during Daylight Hours. I say that because in France, They must speak in French on The Radio between 9 AM and 9 PM. France is a Definitely a Country of Both Nationalism and Patriotism. Which brings me to Talking about Patriotism. Being Patriotic, means to be Proud of The Country that You that Live in. Fireworks in The Air, Having The National Food (In The US, We have Cookouts!), and Of Course, The Country’s Flag is put Everywhere. Now, Is It Okay to be Proud of Your Country? Absolutely! Do You have to Put it in People’s Faces? My Rule is that is long as You do Humbly! The Point here that We should all be Proud to be from Our Country. Speaking to Americans here! Our Country is Awesome (Patriotically Speaking) and We should be Blessed to even be able to be from and live in The United States of America! No, Our Country is not Perfect. No Country is Perfect! But, As Americans, We should come together to Celebrate the Founding of Our Country. Think of It this Way, If We weren’t You Guys in The Northeast would part of The UK and Us down here in Texas could have been either Part of Mexico (or Any of 5 Flags over Texas) and Yes, We could still be part of The Republic of Texas. Anyway, To Help us Come Together, I am going to Rerun a Newsletter about National Holidays and The Fourth of July. 

 
 

This Newsletter was Originally Written on July 4th of 2012 (Refer to Newsletter 307) 

 
 

Well, My Readers in The United States, “The USA”, “America”, or whatever you like to call it; Happy 4th of July! For those outside The United States, July 4 is just another day. You See, every country in our lovely World of 246 Countries, we have our own little “Special days” in our own countries. So, for some a simple day like July 1 or October 26 for example, to you in one country is just another day in the week or work week, depending on whether it is part of the work week or not. For the record, July 1 is Canada Day and October 26, which is also My Brother’s Birthday is also, the National Holiday of Austria, respectively. Anyway, each one country in our world of 246 countries have their own day. Of Course, the meaning of the National Holidays are different and some National Holidays are set on an easy day like June 21, because it’s The First day of summer, the Summer Solstice, and The Longest Day of The Year. In Greenland, their National Holiday is on June 21 because it’s the longest day of the year, where (and, I kid you not) it stays light out for 24 Hours and you can say the same the Winter Solstice, it’s dark for 24 Hours. So, June 21 makes sense for a National Holiday in Greenland for that reason and again for the record, they call it “Midsummers Day”, respectively. Also, there are National holidays the we make our own like St. Patrick’s Day, the National Holiday of Ireland on March 17 that we here in The US, Celebrate as well. Now, back to My Country, The United States of America, we have 2 names for today, we call it The 4th of July most often but, it’s technically called Independence Day because it was the day that a document known as The Declaration of Independence was signed and that was what made us, The United States of America and to be free. So, as a result, we celebrate Independence Day with Fireworks, Pomp & Circumstance, Good Music, and Good Food. However, when I was younger, I was scared of Fireworks and they hurt my ears because I had hypersensitive hearing. The fear and hurting of My Ears from Fireworks lasted until I was 10 or 11. All in all, we have our own National Holidays to celebrate, no matter where you live. By The Way, I’d like to wish, My PTLS Sister, Danielle, a very Happy Birthday because she was actually born on The 4th of July. 

 
 

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Celebrate not just your own National holiday but, maybe others as well. 

The Christianville Spirit: The Mind of PTLS & Autism

The Christianville Spirit 

The Spirit that Shines Brightly 

June 19th, 2024 – TCS # 860 

 

Happy Summer, My Readers! Yes, Folks!  

It is Summer! Time for Summer Vacations! 

When It comes to Meeting New PTLS Family Members and/or New PTLSers, It is always Interesting how The First Few Meetings go. It’s a Little Awkward at First and Then, Once We get going with Talking and Getting Comfortable with Each Other. Trying to Explain PTLS to someone that is New to The PTLS Family, is like Trying to Explain about Love. It was Amazing and Comforting at The Same Time. So, A Bit of a Question here, How Exactly do You explain PTLS to Someone who is Likely Freaking out about The Diagnosis (Even Though, It is No Big Deal at all!)?    

So, with that in Mind,  

Let’s Talk about Something Positive and Loving! 

How about The Mind of Someone with Autism. It is often said that The Mind of Someone with Special Needs like Down Syndrome, Autism, or PTLS is Very Special in terms of How Amazing that Mind is. From Average Everyday, What’s Happening in Events, and Of Course, Everyone’s Personal Favourite of Autism, Stimming.  

Now, For The Record, Potocki-Lupski Syndrome has Autistic-LIKE Behaviors (like Stimming). It does not mean that They have Autism. I think a lot of People get that Segment a little confused at Times because That Word, Autistic comes in and Then, The Next Part gets tuned out and A Buzzing Fogged sound takes over. Like saying “PTLS has Autistic-...(Cue The Fogged Sounds)..Behaviors” and You don’t hear the Autistic-LIKE. Just Making that Clear for You! 

Anyway, Back to The Mind of Autism. What’s in There? Well, There is a TV Show about That Answer! It is called The Good Doctor! I wrote a Newsletter about it that I am going to Re-Share with You! Enjoy the Learning! 

 

This Newsletter was Originally Written on 

 November 15th of 2017 (Refer to Newsletter 570) 

 
 

Oi and Olá, My Readers! Those Words look alike don’t they?! Well, They are Two Greetings that are roughly the Same. Oi means Hi and Olá means Hello in Portuguese. So, You learn something new Every Day. I believe this greeting is used in both Portugal and Brazil. So, on with This Week’s Newsletter! So, as You may recall I have talked about a Brilliant Show on TV here in The United States called The Good Doctor. This Show actually does Live up to The Hype and It makes you realize a lot of Different Aspects relating to Autism. (Refer to My First Newsletter about The Good Doctor). I feel that This Show, not only explains about Those with Autism (and, Special Needs in General) but, also The Medical World. It mixes My Mom’s Medical Nerding-out and My Passion about People learning about those with Special Needs. It is funny because I have found myself asking more questions about What Medical Word that They just said than I do when We watch Grey’s Anatomy. Where Grey’s Anatomy speaks the Medical Term very fast, The Good Doctor say The Word very slow. But, that aside, This Show is Very Interesting because of how Dr. Shaun Murphy analyzes what is wrong with The Patient before The Doctors know. As well as that, He has shown us about How The Autistic Mind works. For Example, He showed us The Struggle of whether Someone is Joking, Being Sarcastic, or Being Literal about Something, Something that I, myself have a hard time telling the difference. He had a Moment where There were a bunch of Patients from a Crash that needed Help and He was Overstimulated by All of The Activity, and Best of all, He did explain Perfectly about Stimming. You See, In This Week’s Episode (Warning: Spoiler Alert!) The Writers came up with an Excellent Test into How a Person who plays Someone with Autism would handle Another Person with Autism in Distress. So, in comes a Person with Autism with Something wrong with his Intestines because His Parents are feeding him the wrong food. Anyway, He is freaking out because The Doctors are trying to figure out what is wrong with him, but He does not like to be touched (A Common Thing with those with Autism) and They pretty much have to hold him down because He is freaking out. Dr. Shaun tells them to stop because He realizes that The Patient also has Autism. Later on, Shaun explains that He has Autism. Which brings me to The Stimming part. The Patient has to go in an MRI, which to Anyone can be Scary, but Dr. Shaun walks into an empty hospital room to Pace back and forth (aka Stimming) to try and figure out how to keep The Patient with Autism calm during The Procedure. Dr. Shaun explained Stimming to His Mentor saying that “It helps him concentrate as well as Relive Stress”. Now, There are Times when We PTLSers Stim because We are either Bored, Stressed, or Over Stimulated. In Dr. Shaun’s Case it was because of Stress. So, When It came Time for The Patient’s MRI, Dr. Shaun help him stim about Numbers and Counting Things to help The Patient decrease their Anxiety, it only helped for a Little Bit. 

Afterwords, Dr. Shaun showed The Parents of The Patient that His Stimming was Okay as well helping making Decisions about Things like if He wanted The Lights on (The Parents seem to think that The Lights being On, increased His Anxiety) or not, or to have Dr. Shaun do The Surgery or not. It is Funny because The Doctors on The Show are also starting to let Dr. Shaun make Decisions too and They are Trusting Him to know what He is doing. Now, They are asking him what He sees! All in all, Not that I like The Distress that sometimes happens in Medical Dramas, but This Show, I really like it because I can relate to it in Many Ways like How his mind works and My Mom learns more about How The Autistic Mind works. 

 It is a Good Show to watch! 

 
 

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Step in Our Shoes and Understand How Our Mind Works. You will see how simple our mind is.