The Christianville Spirit: My Brother's View on Me Part 1

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

October 16th, 2019- TCS # 658

I Love My Brother, My Readers! Yes, My Readers! It is True! I Love My Brother! Truth be told, Even though He may drive me a little crazy at Times, I Love Him! It is actually nearing My Brother’s Birthday. So, In Honor of Him, I am going to do a Two Part Mini-Series about How Awesome My Brother, Michael is. Now, Yes, My Brother still lives in Colorado, I wish He didn’t. I feel like It is starting to effect him, and I wish I could see him more. Don’t Get Me Wrong, I love Him through and through but lately, My intuition is telling me something and It seems that He is not the Michael that I know and love. Now, baring in Mind, that We Humans have Times in Our Lives when We are growing, But I do not like this time for him. I Digress. I do have An Awesome Brother, that at His Core, He is Very Loving, Caring, Nurturing, and Also, a Goofy Person at Times. It always touches My Heart when It Shows It. A Prime Example was at This Year’s PTLS Conference here in Dallas. For The Second Time, My Brother came to The Conference but to His Credit, and second time he was around a Huge Amount of People that had the Same Thing I have. But, This Year, He really showed his real self! He treated Everyone, PTLS Family Members, and PTLSers themselves like They were were His Own Family. With The Same Goofiness that He treats me. What is even better was That He actually spoke about PTLS from His Point of View. Now, Baring in Mind, In My Head and as well as My Mom, neither of us knew what He was going to say. My Mom recorded a Video of It for All to See. This is The Link to The Speech if You would like to Hear it. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnh4PNMnWYs&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR3o3m7FHSafykPVV4WNAR8XxXWd4u3kJTZWiCvHXRpMP8Ht9JzYDGREaXg) I do Remember though, Years before His Talk (7 Years Ago), I submitted for PTLS Family Members to ask Him Questions via My Newsletter in an Interview Format. At The Time, I was anxious about The Idea of Having These rather Deep Questions about His View on Me but I finally asked him to do it. The Results, I must say Astounded Me as well as got me a Little Emotional about it. When His Talk came at The Conference, I mentally prepared myself for Possible Emotions about it. Not because I feared He disliked me or resented me in Some Way, No that is NOT My Brother. Michael has known about My PTLS, My Whole Life. I knew that I might get Emotional because I am Very Proud of My Brother! Now, luckily, My Mom pulled me out of The Room before He spoke so He could Speak about Me without Me getting upset about Whatever He was Saying. Regardless, I know that He loves Me and Very Proud of Me. He always has been! For Comparison, I am going to Re-Share a Newsletter that I added to My “Christianville Classics” List (It is on The Lower Right Corner of My Newsletter Site). You see, This Newsletter is actually an Entirely Different Point of View. It is actually The View of Myself from My Loving Brother, Michael. PTLS Family Members, They don’t make it be know too much, but They do worry that How The Siblings of PTLSers feel about Being The Sibling of a PTLSer. I am here to tell you, My Brother views me Very Greatly, but You will have to read on to Find Out How! Without further a due, This is The Christianville Classic “My Brother’s View on Me”!

This Newsletter was Originally written on June 2oth of 2012 (Refer to Newsletter 305). Hope that You Enjoy what My Brother has to say!

So, Now that I have written Last Week on My View of My Brother and you enjoyed it. Well, now your really going to enjoy this! It’s the long-awaited Newsletter on how My Brother views me. This idea has been in My Head for a while before I finally decided to do it. My Mom and PTLS Family Members had always wondered about My Brother how My Brother felt about me having Special Needs and Having PTLS (or dup.17p11.2, as it used to be called). The idea came when one of the PTLS Members suggested that I should do a Newsletter on My Brother and his view of it all. I mean, considering that I mention him a lot in My Newsletters, people start to wonder about him and how he deals with it. It took a while at first, getting the nerve to ask him to do this, and even the idea of what questions do I ask? Because first off, I didn’t know what to ask him or even more unnerving, what would he say? So, I sent out a post on Facebook to PTLS Members on what questions they want answered and/or curious about and I got quite a few responses about what they want to know. After reading a couple questions, I thought, “Man, these are deep questions” and “I’m not sure if I really want to know about it or not.” So, then came, “How do I do this? A talk? Dictation to My Mom? or an Interview?” Well, long story short, I asked My Brother about it and he said, “We’ll do an interview” and finally, after a while of asking him (because both he and I kept forgetting or it wasn’t the right time of day,) He sat down to answer the questions. He finished it yesterday and it’s ready to go. First, I want to thank him and let him know I appreciate his honesty and willingness to do this. So, Get Ready Everyone cause here’s the interview. As a note: the Bolded Questions are from the PTLS Family Members and below it are Michael’s Responses. So, as they say in Television and Radio, Roll it!!!!!   

TCS: When you were about 10-13 years old, can you tell us as a sibling how you felt when your bother had an aggressive outburst? Did you truly understand what was going on with him?

 Michael: For as long as I have known him, which is practically my entire life, he has never had an aggressive outburst. For the most part if he ever got really upset he would get more emotional. He would work himself up and start crying. There would be the occasional times where he would raise his voice but nothing that could ever be put as an aggressive outburst. At that age I had already seen him do things like that before so I wasn’t to worried about it. I just figured that he was more sensitive to things then I was, I never really linked PTLS to his sensitivity. I also figured out by then he was extremely stubborn and if he didn’t want to do something, he would put up quite a fight. Which would also cause him to get upset.

  TCS: How did having a sibling with PTLS effect your life both good and things that were difficult?

 Michael: Well growing up, nobody knew what PTLS was including myself. I was told that my brother had special needs and I just took that as the literal sense. I never considered him special or different though. I treated him like my bother with no exceptions and restraints. Naturally I picked on him and gave him a hard time. The one thing that I did do growing up was take on the role of big brother. I looked out for him and tried to teach him things. Christian has also taught me a lot growing up with him. I learned from a young age that people in the world see things differently. There’s nothing wrong with looking at the world differently and having a sense of individuality. Everyone goes through highs and lows, it’s how you deal with the situation that makes the difference.

TCS: How do you deal with your peers asking questions about your brother?

 Michael: Honestly, when I was younger I can’t really remember to many people asking about him. I think the main reason was that he was always pretty friendly to everyone. No one really could tell just by meeting him that he had special needs. After a while of getting to know him or seeing him then they might ask questions. I’m always proud to tell them what’s up. I just tell them that he has this rare chromosome duplication and he was forth to be diagnosed with it. After that, some people keep questioning and are really interested others just move on to the next order of business, whatever that might be.

TCS: PTLS kids need a lot of attention/ extra help. Were you ever envious of this?

 Michael: Nope. If anything when I was younger I found it annoying and frustrating. Not that he was getting more attention then me or anything like that, it was just because I was ready to move on and progress while Christian was still trying to learn.

TCS: As a sibling was there a time say around preteen where you were embarrassed when you were out with the family?

 Michael: Not really.

TCS: What did your mom do to help you understand Christians PTLS?

 Michael: I think that the best thing for me was learning patients and acceptance. I was taught that not everyone learns the same way and each person is different. Some people require more training on particular topics. Really that advice goes for everyone and didn’t segregate my brother from other people. It didn’t hurt that my mom likes the medical field and could give me facts and explain information easier to me.

TCS: When did you realize Christian was different?

Michael: I don’t think there was really a point of epiphany where all of a sudden I knew he was different. Living with him and growing up together, you just kind of known as life. Its really the same as getting to know anyone else, you hang out with them enough you learn things about them. All it takes is some powers of observation.

TCS: Growing up, can you give some examples of things you showed him how to do/ taught him?

 Michael: Ha ha ha!!! When I was seventeen or so I let Christian drive my car down the neighborhood street. That was exciting to say the least!! I taught him how to play video games and things like that. To recall everything I taught him would take some time. I just try my best to show him and explain to him anything that he has questions about and would like to learn about. His memory is pretty freaky. He can recall all sorts of random stuff. If others put in the effort and energy to teach him, he can learn anything.

TCS: Do you feel any angst or nervousness about being Christian’s guardian later in life?

 Michael: I suppose so, it is kind of nerve racking. I’m not stressing out too much though. We get along great and for the most part he is pretty self-reliant. I am confident in my self and my abilities to overcome any obstacle that dares to stand in front of me. Ha ha ha! But for real, I have known about being his guardian for a long time now, so I’m mentally ready.   

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So, I hope all of this helped to answer your questions on Siblings and My Brother. It was quite surprising to hear some of these because I didn’t expect it. Well, you know, I guess it’s like they say, “You’ll Never Know Until You Ask”, simple as that. This whole interview turned out to be more fun than I thought it was going to be, but then again, I didn’t know. I mean, you know, how much someone loves you but, sometimes, every now and then, you might be curious as to how much that person loves you. As for me, I know that My Brother loves me and understands me, and I love him so much for that. All in all, I say it a lot, but I’ll say it again, My Brother, Michael, is Awesome!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Let the ones you Love in your life, know that you love them; Everyday.  

The Christianville Spirit: Words, Words, Words Rerun

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

October 9th, 2019- TCS # 657

Ciao, Tutti! That is a Fancy Greeting! Something different than Saying “My Readers”. It is actually is a Greeting in One of My Favourite Languages, Italian. It means “Hello Everyone” in a Less than Formal Way. Funny thing that Romance Languages which I find rather interesting is that in Romance Languages (Spanish, French, and Of Course, Italian) they have a Word in that language in Addressing People in both Informal Ways like Your Best Friend or Someone that You know and Uniformal Way that You can use for Anyone and Everyone. It sure does makes it interesting when It comes to learning that Languages. So, You have learned something new Today! Yay You! Anyway, While We are on The Topic of Words, I have a Great Newsletter that I wrote about that. I believe that it explains perfectly about How Literal us PTLS’ers are.

As a Reminder, You can always Check The Christianville Classics List for Some of My Best Newsletters. Also, While I am at it. Anytime, You can send me Newsletter Suggestions on Topics on PTLS and Otherwise, that You, My Reader, would like to read about. So, Without Further a Due, This is The Christianville Classic Newsletter, “Words, Words, Words!

This Newsletter was Originally Written on September 16th of 2015 (Refer to Newsletter 466)

Buena-sera, My Readers! As I like to try different greetings, Buena-sera is Italian for “Good Day”. So, What are we going to Talk about This Week? Well, We are going talk about a Trait in PTLSers that gets often Overlooked. You See, Us PTLSers when it comes to learning, We are Very Literal in Every Sense of The Word. Now, It is Funny that I always say that I am Literal, My Mom tells PTLS Family Members that I am Literal, and I know that I learn a certain way (as does Everyone Else) and I know how I handle things. So, In Short, I believe that I am just Me, Yes I am aware that I have Special Needs, let alone having Potocki-Lupski Syndrome and Yet, I don’t see the big deal of Having PTLS or even Being “Literal” because It has been the Way I have lived My Whole Life. So, In some odd way, It is Normal (or better word, “Typical”) to Me. So, It begs The Question, What is “Being Literal?” and Yes, I had to ask Myself that too so Don’t Worry! “Being Literal” means that You see Everything for What it is, Everything is, As Is. As It appears or Exactly What The Word is means means Words are Pictures to Me. Being Literal, is to say the least, Challenging sometimes because of Things like Figures of Speech, Odd Phrases and/or Words, and Jokes. Now, Don’t Get Me Wrong, I do get Jokes sometimes, but Sometimes Someone can say something that sounds Serious but, really is just a Joke. So, Figures of Speech, We can call them “Speech Spices” or “Speech Enhancements” because in a way They are. In High School, In order to help catch me up with The Way Most Typical People talk, I had to take a “Figurative Language” class. I had to learn Phrases like “Don’t Let The Cat Out of The Bag” (Keeping a Secret), “It is Raining Cats and Dogs Out There!”(Very Heavy Rain), “Sweep Someone off of Their Feet” (Literally, It means You are taking a Broom and Sweeping their Body away from Their Feet. Figuratively, It means Falling In Love or Liking Someone a Lot), “You are What You Eat” (If You eat Bad Foods, then You feel Bad and Vice Versa), “It is Hotter than Hades Out Here!”(It is Very Hot Outside), and “Pick Yourself up by Your Boot Straps” (Learn from Your Mistakes). Now, In My Mind, that meant, that There is a Cat in a Bag and Why is it in There, and Why can’t we let it out?; It is Literally raining Cats and Dogs (as in, Real Cats and Dogs are falling from The Sky)?; When You say Said thing, You sweep them off there feet?; So, If You eat a Hot Dog than You are a Hot Dog? Add to That, Idioms, Clichés, Metaphors, Similes, and Hyperboles, And You have yourself a Very Confused and Frustrated Me!

Schnikies! I have to say I am having a Bit of a Hard Time Writing This Newsletter, Trying to Remember those Figures of Speech from School and Let Alone trying to Remember what They mean, as well as Explaining it The Best I can to You. But, The Sad Thing is that All These Sayings do not make any sense to Me. It frustrated me and I got a Little Sad because I want You to understand how My Mind works, But It is hard to Explain something that I know that I struggle with, It does not make sense to Me, but People around me use these “Figures of Speech” and Jokes, I always have to ask, “Was that a Joke or Figure of Speech?”. All in all, When You are talking to Your Kids, What You say, They take Word for Word or They are not going understand you, or Just Ignore You.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say

The Christianville Spirit: Autumn 13th Year

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

October 2nd, 2019- TCS # 656

Happy October, My Readers! Yes, Some People just love October. It means Autumn, Pumpkins, Pumpkin-spice Lattes, and Of Course, Halloween. Me? I only like it because It is My Brother’s Birth-Month and for Fall Foliage but, Halloween is Not My Favorite Holiday. Yes, At This Time, You can actually enjoy Pumpkin Spice anything now and No One will judge you! So, Onto This Week’s Newsletter. My Readers, It is that Time of The Year and I don’t mean Christmas! It is Autumn. Okay, so In The Context of Nature, I Love Autumn! Cooler Temperatures, A Little Spice in The Air (Not Necessarily, Pumpkin Spice), if Anything It would be more of a Cinnamon or Apple Spice in The Air. Okay, to be fair, If I had Any Spice that I love in Autumn, It would probably be Cinnamon or Apple Spice like Apple Cider with Caramel, Starbucks serves that around Christmas Time. I digress. and, Of Course, My Favourite Part of Autumn, The Fall Foliage. Baring in Mind here that I have only seen Pictures of The Literally Stunning Autumn Foliage of New England, that would be a Dream Come True to see that. Of Course, In My Relationship with Autumn, There is almost a bit of Dread for Me in Autumn, The Holiday of Halloween. Halloween is the One Time where You can be anyone You want to, so They say anyway. If You want to be Elsa from Frozen, A Character from a Movie (like a Super Hero), or Of Course, If You want to be something Scary and Gory, You can do that! Me, I would not do that! I would Rather avoid People in Costume as long as I can see their Face. If Not, Forget about It. Actually, I wrote a Newsletter about It and How I feel about Autumn and Halloween. Happy 13th Year of Writing to Me! Enjoy!

This Newsletter was Originally written on October 8th of 2014 (Refer to Newsletter 420)

So, My Readers, it is that Time of Year again and Unfortunately I don’t mean Christmas. I usually say, “It’s that Time of Year Again” when It is Christmas because it is My Favorite Time of Year. So, What is “It’s that Time of Year Again” for then? Well, It is This Time of Year, Autumn. The Season of Autumn (or Fall, as it is Normally called) and I have, I guess You would refer to as a Love-Hate Relationship. Autumn is a Season that covers September, October, and November as well as Two Major Holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving. So, Why do I have a Love-Hate Relationship with The Season of Autumn? Well, I will start with the Happy Side of Autumn. You See, I Love Autumn because of The Leaves. What People call The “Fall Foliage” and I Love It! Unfortunately, I don’t live where There are a lot of Tall, Pretty Trees. To Describe what The Trees are like here, They look like Over Sized Broccoli. So, I celebrate Autumn’s Foliage with Looking at Pictures of and Reading Fall Reports from My Favorite Area of The Country in Autumn, New England. I love seeing those Eye-Blinding Colors! It is Beyond Amazing! Other than The Foliage, The Temperatures are finally coming down but, It is in that Comfort Stage where it is Not too Hot and Not too Cold. Of Course, We can’t forget about Thanksgiving with All The Turkey and Stuffing You can Eat. So, Now comes Why I hate The Season of Autumn. Okay, It is not Autumn’s Fault but, It put, In My Eyes, a Very Ugly Holiday known as Halloween. Halloween means a lot of Things that I hate and I will explain why; Pumpkins, Scary Things, Horror Movies, and Costumes. Now, Pumpkins are not at the Top of My List but, There is a Reason. You See, Back in The “Mr. Jeff Era”, We used to Carve The Pumpkins and That sounded fun..until I found out what was Inside. What is Inside is Pulp but, to me, It looks like Seed Covered Orange Goo coming out. It makes My Stomach turn just looking at it, and At Times, Thinking about it. The Reason being because It Looked Gross to Me. You See, As I have Told You many times about My Texture Issues. Well, I have Texture Issues with The Way Something feels as well as The Way It looks. Now, On The Upside, I would probably enjoy watching Pumpkins being Chunked in a Fun Event known as “Pumpkin Chunkin’”. It would be Interesting to see How far They would go. The Next Couple Reasons are Truly Why I Hate Halloween. Scary Things like Horror Movies, Haunted Houses, and Scary Costumes. I do not like Costumes in General, so making them scary is Much Worse! Of Course, I Hate Costumes, Especially The Scary Ones as well as Any that has a Mask. My Mom actually explained it to a PTLS Family Member once and Now, I know why I don’t like Costumes. “They (The PTLSers) don’t have very good Depth Perception, They Can’t see very well in 3D”, My Mom says. She also explained that We like it when You can see the Person’s Face, not a Scary Mask covering The Face. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the Cute Child Costume that is not Scary and I can see Their Face clearly.

I would never watch a Horror Movie, unless It is a Horror Movie in a Funny Way. Although, It seems like Most of My Friends (including My Brother) like Horror Movies and I don’t understand why You would. It probably pertains to The Fact that I don’t like People and Animals in Distress. To Me, Besides The Movie Scaring The Pants off You, There is usually a lot of People in Distress in Those kind of Movies. Haunted Houses, Definitely Hate Them and Believe Me, I have Tried a Few. Those being Van Helsing at Universal Studios Hollywood, One at Sea World in San Antonio, and Fiesta Texas’ Fright Fest, Most of these with My Dad. So, At Least, I can say that I tried them and I Hated Them. So, I would rather celebrate with The Fall Foliage, Hot Apple Cider with Caramel, and Cool Weather. All in all, I Love The Weather Part of Autumn, Eating Stuffing at Thanksgiving, and Spending Time with Family. But, I can do without Halloween, A Little Christmas Music helps get me through.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Cheers to Apple Cider and The Beautiful Fall Leaves.

The Christianville Spirit: People's Perception of Normal

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

September 25th, 2019- TCS # 655

What Do You see as “Normal”, My Readers?! Wow! A Question within a Greeting! Crazy, right?! So, I do need to address something before I continue onto My Newsletter. You may have noticed that I took a Week off Last Week. I do have a Reason Why, but I did not make it too Public, only on Facebook. You See, as You Know or Are About to Find Out, We had to put our Oldest Dog, Zoe down Last Wednesday. For Reference, We had 3 Dogs being Zoe (We referred to Her as The Sophie Incarnate, Later to be Known as “The Guard Dog” or “The Referee”), Sadie Good-Lord (As in “Sadie! Good-Lord! What are You doing?!”), and then, Of Course, My Little-Not-So Little-Anymore Boy Dog, Paco (The First Boy Dog in Our Family). Zoe was, believe it or not, 12.8 Years Old (or 12 Years and 8 Months Old). A Shorter Life Expectancy than What I expected. Some Dogs have Different Life Expectancies, Some are Longer and Others are Shorter. Some can live to only 9 Years, Others upwards of 15 or 16 Years. Very Odd how that Happens! It depends on The Breed of The Dog, I am told. Anyway, She was a Great Dog! The Greatest We have had, My Mom says. Good Traveller and Protector, like to The Point of When My Mom and Brother (or I) would Hug My Mom, She would bark and growl a little bit. So, Long Story, Short. She is much better now in “Doggy Heaven” as My Mom says. No Longer in Pain (She was in a lot of Pain) , She can Run and Spin around all She wants (She used to Literally spin in a Circle with Such Speed!), No More Thunderstorms, or Noises that sounded like a Fire Detector (She Hated That!). Anyway, We will Miss You, Zoe. The Guard Dog or as Young People would refer to as The OG Dog 2.0 because She looked like Sophie, The OG Dog! Anyway, on to This Week’s Newsletter! So, The Question I asked as The Greeting, What do You think is “Normal”? My Mom and I had This Discussion a Couple Weeks Ago about The Same Time as The School Funding Talk, Refer to The Newsletter before This One to get the Context of It. Now, What People Think is Normal, or More on The Lines of, What People Perceive as “Normal”, is actually a Very Fascinating Topic. Sometimes, Acting a Certain Way and Believing in Certain Things is what People perceive as “Normal” and That is Okay. Some People, believe it or not, think that Swearing to Each other in a Joking Way in a Family is Normal. Some People think that Thinking one way about Other People is Normal; This can apply to Disliking Someone, Judging Someone, and Yes, even Liking or Loving Someone could be Perceived as Normal. The Most Fascinating of This Topic is more on The Lines of what We as Americans see happening around The World and The Behaviours or Lifestyles that We may be fascinated with and Wonder Why They think that is Normal. I like to point out that Places that I have been where They have Lifestyles that I think are Fascinating but, They think is Normal. For Example, In Spain, They believe that taking a Nap in The Middle of The Day, Commonly known as a “Siesta” as well as They do Everything Late, Most Commonly Lunch and Dinner is Normal. Lunch is at 2:00 in The Afternoon and Dinner, again, Believe it or not, People in Spain don’t Eat Dinner until 9:00 at Night. Yes, You read that correctly, 9 O’ Clock at Night to have Dinner! Here in The United States, We eat Dinner between 4 PM and 7 PM. Now, with The Perception of Normal also comes with a Reason. People in Spain don’t Eat Dinner until 9 because, They don’t have Air Conditioning and Therefore, It is better to wait until Later to Eat because otherwise It is going to be Hot inside The Restaurant! Another Example, One of My Favourites Actually, is that in One of My Favourite Countries, Sweden, They have What is called a “Fika” (Pronounced Fee-Kah) which is basically a Coffee Break among Family, Friends, or Co-Workers, Twice a Day at 10 and 3 Respectively. It is sort of a Rule that Whoever You are with and Where ever You are, You stop and have a Fika. Literally, a Business Meeting will stop suddenly to have a Fika. It actually happened at Our PTLS Conference On The Road where My Mom was talking and People started getting up and walking over to get their Fika. It dawned on both of Us that It was Fika Time! While We were Driving with PTLS Member, Josefine between Stockholm and Sundsvall, We saw a Couple Cars on The Side of The Road and We thought that They might be having Problems but, They were actually having Fika. Like I said, Perception of Normal is not just Behaviors. In Fact, According to Swedish Law, as Long as You are not on Private Property and Not Bothering Anyone, You can camp anywhere in Swedish Nature. That would be Very Weird to see happen in The United States. Of Course, Perception of Normal can be things that You wonder Why They do that. 

Of Course, I do have to Mention about Even The Perception of Something like Having PTLS. Now, People who are more on The Typical Side would think that a Person like Me having PTLS is a Big Deal and It really isn’t. I perceive it to be Normal that I have PTLS, I know that I am Unique in a lot of Ways; I may have Anxiety, See The Good in People, Always Needing a Routine and Predictability to help me Function, among Many Other Things but, That is seems Normal to Me because I have had PTLS My Whole Life, I don’t know anything different. That is actually The Perfect Way to Explain about the Big Deal about Having PTLS. People do perceive that Having PTLS is Easy, like “Oh! The Youth Gene! I want some of that!”. I am over here thinking, “Well, You can’t have JUST The Youth Gene in There! You would have to have All of The PTLS!”. Don’t Get me Wrong, I would not trade having PTLS for Anything. PTLS is Unique. Very Unique, If I might say so Myself! But, I will Say that PTLS is not Easy! The Things that Us PTLSers perceive as Normal is not Wrong, It sure is Different but, We PTLSers see you as Being Different! For Example, When We are Lining up Our Toys when We are Kids, To Us, We are thinking of Different Scenarios in Our Mind. There is a lot of Organization going on in Our Mind, People might think that We don’t understand what is happening. But, We perceive more than You Think! All in all, The Wrong Perception of Someone can make a cause a Big Mistake!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Take Time to Get to Know People or Situations before You pass Judgement.

The Christianville Spirit: The Four Segments of School Funding

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

September 11th, 2019-TCS # 654

So, Before I write about This Week’s Newsletter, I want to wish Everyone a Happy Patriot’s Day (according to The Calendar in My Kitchen, it says, “Patriot’s Day.”) Never Forget What Happened that That Day, 18 Years Ago, Can You believe that?! 18 Years! and If You see a Fireman or Police Officer Today, Thank them for all their Service! Thank You Fire and Police for Your Service in America Today and on That Day from The Christianville Spirit! So, with that said, We move on to This Week’s Newsletter. So, My Mom and I often have The Best Conversations when We least expect it! Sometimes, It comes when We are having a Rough Time with Something and Other Times, It comes from Talking about One Thing that leads to Another, that leads Another. Among Them, We talked about What People Perceive as Normal and Funding of Segments of The School System. I probably write on that one later, but This Week, We are going to Talk about The School System, an Often Oh-So-Sensitive Politically Un-Necessary Conversations. But, I feel that It needs to be Addressed. Now, Baring in Mind, that People have Opinions about Which of These is more Priority and Honestly, in Some Ways, They are all Important. However, Schools only have so much Money from Regional Taxes and other means like Fund Raising, commonly referred to as The PTA. The Segments of Funding go as Sports (Football, Baseball, Soccer, and Basketball. Go Jags, Ravens, and Tigers!); The Next is The Most Important One, Academics (in Other Words, School itself. Math, Science, Social Studies, to Name a Few); Then There is The Fine Arts (Meaning Art of All Kinds and Music); and, finally, Special Ed (In other words, Those with Special Needs. of All Kinds!) So, Let’s Touch on all of Them.

So, Sports.. Sports is The Thing that is Argued that They should fund the Most in School outside of Academics and Truth be told, They do. It does make People move and It makes the Students proud of Their School besides Well, School. Personally though, It make sense to let Students move a bit while doing Academics because A lot of Students learn differently. Some like to Move and others like Silence, truth be told if all students were to move about in a Quiet and Mannered Way while the Teacher is Teaching, that would be Awesome. However, In My Humble Opinion, Sports should be Funded on It’s Own and A lot of Local Sports Teams have The Power to do so. I mean, The Cost of Tickets and Food at a Game is enough to Fund the Team. Plus, Everyone would love a Team fundraiser, right? The Prouder You are of The Team and The School, The More Money they get. And, Come to Think of It, It is quite The Economics lesson too!

Academics..In my Mind, That is just a Fancy Word for School. The Everyday, Having Tons of Homework, Learning Some (Keyword here Some) Useless Subjects. Subjects like Math, Reading, and Writing are The Core Subjects, in other words, The Most Important Ones! Now, Algebra and Higher, to the Average Student anyway, is not Useful in Life. Unless, You want to be a Scientist or a Profession that requires that. In Which, that is More College kind of Stuff.  Now, It would help to have Subjects in School, that like the Core Subjects, would be Useful in Life. Like How to budget your money, change a tire, How to Handle Emotional Challenges, and Community Involvement Skills (being a pert of the community and helping others). A Note, Please Make a Subject like History, a lot more Exciting. History is more than Just Dates, It is also Stories. History and Geography, and Yes, even Politics all mix together in a lot of Ways! Like I said before about The Students Moving, that would help a ton with Helping those who Learn in a Different Way. In Terms of Funding, You are Fine because You are The Parent, the Master, if You will of This Show. This Show can not survive without You!

And, Next is another Oh-So-Sensitive Opinion, The Fine Arts. Now, When I was in School, Yes, It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to Make or Create but, Looking Back on it, I really liked Art Class and Most Importantly My Brother loved Art Class. So, If You are like me, You would know that Art covers Everything from Ceramics, Sculpture, Painting, and Of Course, Music. I think that if Students could do Art and Let Their Creativity Fly, It really could help them in Their Emotional Output. Now, I could argue too that Yes, When It comes to becoming a Real Artist or a Musician, It is a Dog-Eat-Dog World out there! There are only so many Artists in The World and In Music, There are only So Many Keys on a Keyboard, eventually Music starts to Sound The Same and That is Where You could get into Trouble. But, Music, or actually Songs, are basically Poems with Music. In Case of Funding, I think that You should be Funded after Academics. Now, You can also Fundraise and Have Music Festivals where You can Showcase The Best Artist in All Kinds! Perfect Idea!

And Then Finally, Something I know personally.......

 Special Ed. So, A Thing that Most People do not understand about having Special Needs is really, What Type of Special Needs are We talking about. And, No I don’t mean Your Syndrome, that is just a Label. I feel that There are 3 Sub-Categories for Those with Special Needs and in Context of Where to put them and Most Importantly, How to not divide them too much that it blows the School Budget. Oh The Complication! So, The There are schools that like to Categorize kids with Special Needs. Some just put all into one room and not help them. Categories, There are Those that have Special Needs but are Very Smart, have some delays that they Struggle with, Considered High Functioning, and Intellectual Abilities in areas that are different (like me, Maps and Geography). Those who are Mild, I like to call us. Those of Us that have a Good Potential in Life, In Our own way, and Given a Chance to Learn. As a PTLSer, I Think, It is better to group us with These People and Give Us a chance. Then, We go into The Hardest Parts, The “Mids”. They are Very Smart but, have a Few Behaviors, or They have a More Behaviors and have some Challenges Intellectually. In My Humble Opinion, The Schools Focus too much on The Diagnosis and Thinking that The Child won’t be Successful to make it into Life, Get put Here, which again in My Humble Opinion, Is not Fair! Because They have a lot of Potential and If They mimic The Behavior of those that are More Intellectual Disabilities, You and They will have a Problem because the learning has to fit Each Child. and, Finally, We move into The Severe Category. The Ones who have A Lot of Behavior Issues, more severe Physical Difficulties, or Have Severe problems understanding. They Have more Struggles with Intellectual and in terms of Life Skills (which I saw in my own classrooms When I was in School), They will more than Likely be at Home a lot of Their Lives.  When I was in School, I was in these classes and It was Not Helping Me Learn Enough, until I was In a Class with Teachers who saw I could learn more. It really is a Harsh Reality and a Sad Reality, but It is Truth. Now, Some Schools do a Good Job in Separating the Kids. Milds here, Mids There, and Severe There. More often than Not, though The Milds are Here but, The Higher Intellectuals of The Mids go with them. and, The Lower Mids go with The Severe’s. Or God Help You, All of The Mid go with The Milds and Severe only with The Severe. The Segregation and the Lack of Integration can be Messed Up. It does not matter where You are in Your Ability to Learn, Funding is Needed in The Special Ed Classrooms, so Each Child can Reach Their Potential in Learning, We deserve a Chance to Learn! All in all, All Children can benefit from Fine Arts, All Children deserve to Learn in Their Own Way and All of This needs Funding! Maybe The School System should re-think in What Segments The Money goes.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Respect How People Learn!

The Christianville Spirit: School Days, Overwhelming Days Rerun

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

September 4th, 2019-TCS # 653

Happy September, Everyone! This is The First Month of The Fall Foliage Season, so Get Yourself and Cameras Ready! I Love Fall (or Autumn) Foliage Season! It is so Pretty to look at Pictures of Nature’s Pure Beauty that is Fall Foliage! I wish to see it for Myself One Day! Also, for Those of You who are Obsessed with Pumpkin Spice, Go at It! Me, I don’t see it as a Big Deal! I Love Fall (Autumn) more because of The Fall Foliage! So, On to My Newsletter! So, It has been Many Years, 12 Years actually High School and I still from Time to Time have Dreams like I am still in School. Truth be Told, In Life after School, It is Hard to imagine being out in The Real World because School was All We Knew at The Time. Every Time I see Everyone’s Back to School Pictures, I am reminded how it felt to have a Routine going to School everyday and I know that for PTLSers, Routine is Very Important to Us! Because We are Very Routine oriented. So, Because It is Time for Your PTLSer to go back to School and get back into Their School Routine, I am re-running a Newsletter about going back to School and How Important Routine is.  Enjoy!

This Newsletter was originally written on August 23rd of 2017 (Refer to Newsletter 558)

Welcome Back to School, My Readers! Okay, actually, Your Children are probably have already been told that or will be told that! Yes, It is Back to School Time! The Time when Everyone, young and old go back to School. I guess You could consider This Newsletter, School. Because I teach you things that You may not even think about. How School is that?! Get It? Just figured that I would make a Joke for those actually Going to School, both Kids and Young Adults. Young Adults can go to School too via College. Anyway, on to This Week’s Newsletter! So, Speaking of School, Going back to School means at least for us, PTLSers, that We finally get into a Nice Routine. I remember I did. I obviously talk about The Importance of Routine in My Newsletters a lot. Routine is Very Important to us PTLSers. But, Here is something that I am not sure that I have talked about or have only mentioned in Brief. Usually, I mention it at The End of an Exciting Event in My Life that I tell you. Or It is in the Newsletter after. So, What Am I talking about? Well, Like I said Routine is Important but, being Human and having Out-of-Routine Events happen. That is a Given. Like a Vacation, A Family Road Trip, A Cruise, Someone coming to Visit, or Some Kind of Adjustment to Our Routine. The Thing that makes it easier if It is Predictable, but Again, that does not happen. I am reminded of a Question of One of The PTLS Member’s Boyfriend asked me at The Conference, Being that You need Routine, How do You come down from a Routine-Changing Event? Usually, It involves what I call a Recovery from Whatever Event. My Theory is that My Recovery comes from a lot of different factors like How Big is The Event? Lots of People or a Group of People; How Much of a Difference in Routine am I dealing with? For The PTLS Conference, It was 4 Days. For My Cruise, It was a Week but, with Somewhat of a Different Routine than My Own. and, Probably, The Biggest Factor, What is The Craziness Level in This? 10 being Lots of Activity and/or Distress (or Both) or 0 being I am going out to Dinner with Friends to a Familiar Restaurant. So, How do I recover from Something like a PTLS Conference? So, once The Event ends, I describe it as Driving Very Fast on a Highway and all of a sudden, There is Nothing pushing you, Nothing left to do except Slow Down and go back to Your Routine. To Me, that basically means, that I have to Literally Slam on My Brakes and that usually causes me to Need Time to Calm Down or What I call, “Coming Down” (In Kids, It would be called a Meltdown, only They cry, scream, and kick their legs) after all The Excitement. I have one after Every Big Event that I go to. What I mean is that I am Tired Physically and Mentally. I am Overwhelmed.

Sometimes, My Excitement gets to be Too Much for Me to Handle before My Big Event is over, There have been numerous times when that happens. Two Times that I really remember, Once while at Disney World when I was Kid and Another when We were driving to a PTLS Member’s House during The Stockholm and London Trip.  

After I have My “Coming Down” and Assess all of My Emotions, and Is It normal that I am having them. Then, I get into My Routine as much as I can but, Also It still takes a while to Digest, depending on The Size of The Event. PTLS Conferences (Refer to Any PTLS Conference Newsletter), Great Wolf Lodge (Refer to “Great Wolf Lodge” Newsletter), My Cruise with PTLS (Refer to “Cruise of a Lifetime” Newsletter), It took anywhere from a Week to Week and a Half to Recover. It does help to talk to My Mom about Everything, both exciting (which comes first) and then Emotional, It also helps to Listen to Soft Music (Back when The Great Wolf Lodge thing happened, I listened a Ukulele version of The New Zealand National Anthem. It is Beautiful, I recommend it!), I Take a Nap, or Watch a YouTuber driving on The Road and Listen to sounds of The Road and Bridges (I like Bridges more because They make a Better Sound). Just some Quiet Time with Little to No Activity is all I need. But, I know that all of Us PTLSers have the Same Needs like This, so I am not Alone. Only the Little Kids cannot express this well for a Parent to know what is going on, so The Parent complains of The Child’s Meltdown, not really understanding what is going on. This happened to Me when I was Little, but Good Thing, My Mom knew what to do and Still knows My Facial Expressions which She knows when I am Overwhelmed and Ready for a “Come Down”. When I was Younger, The Teachers could always tell when I had spent the Weekend with My Dad because of The Lack of Routine and Too Much Stimulation, I had My “Come Downs” Monday Mornings at School and They said, I could not focus. I would rock back and forth, hum, and Stim More intensely, and The Teachers had a Problem with getting me to re-focus. But, They knew that I would be Okay in a Day or Two and Back to My Old Self. All in all, Going back to School means a lot of Excitement both Good and Bad, We PTLSers love School, Love to watch The Kids, Just have respect for Our Need to withdraw to “Come Down”.

Thanks For Reading The Christianville Spirit. Celebrate going Back to School, Balanced with Quiet Time.

The Christianville Spirit: Anxiety and Voices Overlapping

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

August 28th, 2019- TCS # 652

Hoi, My Readers! I present to You, a New Greeting! This Greeting is from the Netherlands, Holland, or Both. Hoi, which I am told is pronounced like It looks, Hoy. Hoi, by the way, is Dutch for “Hi” commonly said among People that You know. Alternatively, Hallo (like the German and Swiss German Hallo) is used to say “Hello”. In Trying to come up with One of My Common Greetings, I thought of This One. I heard actually that The Famous All-About-Special-Needs “Welcome to Holland” Poem has an Extension called “Welcome to Holland-Part 2”. If You don’t know about it, be sure to check it out after Reading My Newsletter. Priorities, People! 

So, My Mom and I had Another Great Discussion last week that I forgot to mention about. So, She was looking at Meme’s for a Second on a Facebook Page called “Empaths, Old Souls, and Introverts” and She came across a Meme that She shared that said, “An Empath’s Nerves can get frayed by Noise, Smells, or Excessive Talking”. She nodded at Me and said “That’s You Guys with PTLS!”. I came over to her and read the Meme and I said “Amen to that!”. Then, I went into an Explanation that I thought that I told her before but, I’m not sure if I had or not. An “Only In My Mind” kind of Thing. First of All, Yes, PTLSers are actually both Empaths and Old Souls. “You are Wise Beyond Your Years, Christian”, a lot of People, both PTLS Family Members and Friends tell me. As for The Introvert Thing, In a Way, We are. We tend to be Homebodies. and, in a Way, We are Not. We are Out going when We want to be. I tell her that it is Not Always for Me to go to a Party or Places where People are talking loudly and Music is playing Loudly. Like When I am at Party, I wanted to talk to a Group of People about a Subject that either happening in My Life or in Cases where I can, Politics. But, Then, There comes a Time when The People I am around start Talking about something boring, or The People in Another Group are talking about Sometimes, I want to. It makes me Anxious, do I join in or not. I think that is a Common Problem with A lot of People though. the Give and Take of Conversations and Of Course, What I call “Voices Overlapping” is what makes me Anxious The Most. What is “Voices Overlapping”, that is basically when Two or More People are talking at The Same Time about Roughly The Same Thing. An Example that I can think of is when I was at Grandma Honey’s House. My Mom and Grandma Honey wanted me to do something, but Voiced at The Same Time, I said “Hold On! Voices Overlapping! One person at a Time!” Then, I asked one-by-one, what each of them wanted. The Give and Take Thing is The Hardest! Let’s Say that Myself, PTLS Brother, Tyler, A PTLSer that I will refer to as “MP Twinee ” and My Lil’ PTLS Sis’, McKenna all are talking about A Subject. Me and “MP Twinee” are talking about Something, then McKenna jumps saying, “But, Like” about The Subject at Hand, but Tyler mentions something Funny and We start laughing about it. Several Topics later, McKenna (or I, in Many Cases than I care to admit) talk about The Subject that We talked a Couple subjects ago. The Thing is that, We think of an Idea to The Conversation and Want to talk about It, but by the Time We get The chance to mention it, The Subject that Our Idea was in, has already passed. 2 or 3 Subject Matters ago. Now, Baring in Mind, It is not always McKenna that will do that, It could also be Me or “MP Twinee” or even, Tyler. It is All of Us PTLSers that could do it. Somehow, In Social Convention, It can be seen as being Rude or not being Very Sociable. We are Very Sociable but, Just in a Different Way. Here is A Rerun about “Voices Overlapping” in More Ways than One. 

This Newsletter was written on September 28th of 2016 (Refer to Newsletter 513)

Happy Autumn, My Readers! Sorry Guys, I forgot to wish you a Happy Autumn last week. So, Happy Autumn anyway. I like that word, Autumn, it actually sounds better than Fall. Anyway, on to This Week’s Newsletter. So, when I scroll through My Facebook News Feed, Interesting Stories pop up (I call them “Push Backs” because I send them to Safari and I read them after I get done with Facebook) that I find to Read. Most are about Travel or Romance. But, This One got to Me. It was an Article from a Special Needs Advocate Blog called “The Mighty”. This Article was about What It is like with High-Functioning Anxiety. That basically means that I can do a lot by Myself but, We have Anxieties to go with it. I am thinking that Anxiety is a common trait of People with Special Needs and that includes PTLS. Don’t get me Wrong, I Love PTLS, I Love having PTLS, I would never trade it for The World. Do I wish that There were Certain Attachments (or Clauses) that I would edit or get rid of? Sure I would. The Biggest Attachment I would want to get rid of, is You guessed it, Anxiety. Anyway, This Blog post on “The Mighty” explained in My Head, Perfectly what it is like with Anxiety being a High-Functioning Person with Special Needs. It mentioned also to Blog about It to Help You, as well as Others Understand, and That is what I am doing. So, When I am Anxious, according to My Mom, You can usually tell. If I am Anxious about a Certain Event, I get different ranges of symptoms, like a little Gagging (when I was little or in extreme situations), Throwing Up (in real extreme situations), Sweating, or Digestive Issues. Usually, My Mom can tell I am Anxious because I have a “Look” on My Face that says it all. We call it the “Something is bothering me/Face of Fear/I’m going to be Sick” Face. But, What about Anxiety Stress, I believe that The Article was referring to? Well, when I am stressed I tend to act different than What I normally do. I am more Quiet when I am normally Talkative, I ask a lot of questions, I get Headaches more often, Most of This Stuff I have written about before, and then Something that I have never mentioned is Something I like to called “My Curiosity thoughts”. Basically, They are, as My Mom says, “Intrusive Thoughts” that Everyone has normally, that usually goes in and then Pass Through, like how new parents worry about dropping a baby while they are holding them. They know they will not do it, but the thought “Pops” in their head. But, For Me, It “Pops in” and then I obsess about it, and Then I have to let it Out somehow. It really bothers me when these Thoughts Pop in. I know they will not happen, but They sure are Bothersome. The Best Way I have found to let them out is either Blurting it Quickly, Say “Sorry Mom”(even though my mom did not even hear what I said), Hug, and Move on or I say it in a Joke form. Other Times, I would tell it to “Shut Up” and hope it goes away, and Get it to Pass Through. It can range anywhere from “Should I say or do this?”, and Not-So-Nice Words. Now, I would never actually do or say any of those things because I have No Mean Bone in My Body and I hate when They come in. It really Annoys Me when I have a “Curiosity Thought”! I have realized that When I am Anxious about Something that is going to happen that I am Not sure about, They start to show up more than I would like them to. I am wondering also if I am Imitating things that I see or hear about. Considering that I watch The News everyday to hear about What is going on in The World, which I use to Teach me things about How The World works, it is not good. I am struggling to even write this because It is hard to explain What is in My Head. My Mom looked it up one time about The Thoughts and Told me that It is common for those that have Autism to have those “Curiosity Thoughts”, but I read that Those with Autism tend to follow through with The Thoughts, where I would not. It makes me wonder though, It is a Little-Known but, Common Theory for those PTLS as well. The Article mentioned that You tend to have Self-Damning (If You will) Thoughts like Your not good enough, Your a Bad Friend, Your a Loser, Your Pathetic and It is basically Energy that needs to get out somehow. They say to Exercise, Walk, Run, or Just talk it out. But, Not to go all Psychology on You, but, Those Kinds of Thoughts are Common for Everyone. It is how “The Enemy” (as I explained in a Previous Newsletter) tries to Get you, to Upset You, and Pull You away from Your Destiny, that is his (It sounds better) job. I am thinking “It” should get a New Job. I often worry that I will have those Thoughts even in My Future, with My Future Wife around. I am sure that She will change that, at least I would think. I will always have some kind of Anxiety but, I would rather get rid of that one. All in all, I hope that You understand that It is Hard to get what is in My Head out for You can Understand.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. We all have ANTs (Automatic Negative Thoughts) in Our Head, Get a Hug and Let them go.

The Christianville Spirit: The Day of My Birth

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

August 21st, 2019-TCS # 651

 Welcome Back, My Readers! I am Back and Ready to Roll! I was just Partying Hard-y for My Birthday. Okay, Maybe not Partying Hard-y but, Certainly Partying in My Own Way. I am 32 Years Old Now, by the way! Wow! It feels Weird to be saying that! 32 Years Old. Yes, Folks! Thirty-Two Years Old! So, Two Questions that I am sure that You are Wondering, One that I place in Your Head, One that is Already in Your Head. First, is the One that will be in Your Head. It is always a Question that goes in My Head pretty much Every Birthday Year I have had. What do I know about The Number XYZ? In other words, What do I know that The Number 32? Well, in Numerology, 32 with The Numbers 3 and 2 equal 5. Now, Baring in Mind, that There are Two Meanings to Numbers. One that I call Number in Single and One that I call, Number in Sequence. Personally, I prefer Number in Sequence like 111, 222, 333, 555, 666, 888, 999, You get The Idea! 555 means that a Series of Your Life, Career, Professional, or Relationship is going to End. Likely, Making Room for New Professional or Relationship Phases to come. Then, Of Course, Comes a Bigger Question about References in TV, Movies, or Music or just in Pop Culture. In the Case of 32, I know that 32 is a Football Call...actually like a Yell that says, “Blue 32!” that was All I knew by Heart, My Lovely Smart Neighbour, Mr. Marshall told me that It is also a Computer Code. As in, The Size of a Computer’s Memory back in The Day, called 32-bit, as in 32-bit Memory. So, My Age is Football Call (Yell) and a Computer Code of Memory. That is Interesting! Something to Think about with Your Age in Reference. So, The Second Question is What did I do for My Birthday? Well, For My Birthday, I was not really sure what to do! For My 29th Year, My Lovely Neighbours Surprised Me for a Dinner and I went up to Denver to see My Brother; My 30th Year, My Brother came down here to Surprise Me! and Of Course, My 31st Year was spent in a Different Country, in Sweden! So, In My Head, I struggled with, How do You top that?! My Mom chimed in saying, “You don’t” So, We decided it would be Nice to Make Appointments with Those that I Love that have Quality Time with Them because It is much Easier to do that and Socialize versus having a Party and not having enough Time to talk to Everyone. So, I went to Dinner with My Mom and I’s Friend, Max; Went on a Drive with My Mom for a 3 Hour Drive near Downtown Dallas; FaceTimed with My Lil’ PTLS Sis and Another PTLS Pal of Mine, baring in Mind that both of them are on Opposite Sides of The Country! Oy! Times Zones, Let me tell ya! But, I call that a Birthday Miracle! and, We managed to talk for an Hour! again, A Miracle! Of Course, I also had a Great Dinner while Camming (FaceTime) with My Grandma Honey. and, I had Dinner the Other Night with My Neighbour across The Street. In All, It was a Great Birthday! So, I wanted to share an Awesome that I wrote about My Birthday in a Different Way, I present to You, My Day of Birth Newsletter!

This Newsletter was Originally Written on August 9th of 2017 (Refer to Newsletter 556)

Happy Birthday Week to Me, My Readers! Yes, Folks! This Week is what I refer to as “My Birthday Week”. Why Celebrate Just a Day when You can celebrate the Entire Month and Entire Week of Your Birthday? Genius Right? I would believe so! It is much more Fun that way. I still can not believe that I am turning 30 Years Old This Week. It just baffles me! This, However is the Last Newsletter of My 29th Year! I had a Really Great 29th Newsletter. I went to Spain and Spoke in front of PTLS Family Members; I went on a Cruise with A PTLS Family Member without My Mom, The First Trip I have done without Family of Mine since, like 5th Grade (1998). I have grown up a lot in My 29th Year. So, Adios to My 29th Year! So, This Birthday Newsletter is going to be a Little Different. Less than Traditional. So, Something that Most People don’t think about, Your Birthday is not just Your Birthday, It is also for Your Mom. Your Mom?! You would say. “It’s MY Birthday, not Hers!”. But, Here is the Thing, We would not be here without Our Moms. Our Moms giving birth to us. My Mom and I were talking about it one Night and I asked her, “What would You call the day of My Birth?”. “Mother’s Day of Birthing” and Everyone has one. In Other Words, In a way, Your Birthday is mainly about You but, also about Your Mom. So, What about Your Mom? Well, in Honor of Her, My Mom is Awesome! The Thing is about Your Mom is that You don’t realize how much She does for You from Birth to Now. I Thank My Mom for that Every Day and not just in a “Thanks Mom for Dinner” kind of way. After all, She birthed me, She burped me, She cuddled me, She took care of me, and Sent me to School among Many, Many Things. She does a lot too! She does a lot of Work (that is often Unseen, as to How hard she works) and Representation of not only Myself but, My Special Needs of Potocki-Lupski Syndrome (or PTLS for Short). That Alone deserves an Award! She does a lot of Work for Furthering PTLS and does not Get Paid (Which She should, just My Bias here!) and Eventually Will be! She tells me that She knew I had Something Special about Me and that I was Unique from The Minute that I was Born! From The Moment that She felt Everything giving Birth to Me, She knew She was going to be in for Quite a Ride! Not in the Very Least a Typical Up and Down Ride! How about an Up, Down, Upside Down, and Spinning Ride?! and, Quite a Ride that She has ridden up to Now and Will continue to Ride. Now, Imagine this Whole Ride of PTLS, Working Hard Unseen, and Raising Him Up. Comes to Her Oldest Son turing 30 Years Old on Friday! That is just Cray-Cray! I am not a Gift Receiving kind of Person (It is not My First Love Language), I would rather feel Love with Quality of Time. I would rather Celebrate The People that I know and Love as My Gift. So, that is My Gift to You. All in all, I Thank You to My Readers for Being in My Life. And, I thank My Mom for Birthing Me for You to be in My Life!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Thank You for Being My Lifetime Gift. 

The Christianville Spirit: My Thoughts on Bullying

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

August 7th, 2019-TCS # 650

Welcome Back to School, My Readers! Okay, actually, Your Children probably have already been told that or will be told that! Yes, It is Back to School Time! The Time when Everyone, young and old go back to School. Yes, Folks! I know It may seem Early to Some. I am sure that You are probably Thinking, Wait a Minute! Summer just started! Nope! Time went by Very Fast! Now, to be fair, There are Some School Districts in America (ahem..Here in The United States) where They have already started School and even I was thinking that It was starting too Early. I have always known here in Plano that School always started either A Day or Two before, On, or a Day after My Birthday of August 11th. This Year it happens to be The Day after My Birthday. Now, Something that worries Parents, speaking of School is the Dreaded Topic that Everyone eventually has to deal with at One Time or another. For The Record, Said Topic does not always stop in School, Sometimes You get them in Adulthood but, Much Less than in School. The “Them” that I am referring to, of course is Bullies or Bullying. In Other Words, People who feel that In order to Make Themselves feel better, They start Bullying You so that You are Equal their Level of Sadness and/or Anger-ness or both. So, The Thing is, I wrote a Newsletter about This, which I am going to rerun in a Second. But, I will tell you first that Yes, in My Childhood, I was Bullied in the 5th Grade. The Kids who did it have since apologized for Their “Immature” Behavior at The Time, which to be Fair, It comes with being in 5th Grade. But, I digress. Now, The Hard Part of This Topic of Bullying is that Bullying as certainly changed a lot since I was Kid. Most of The Time, Bullying occurred at School and Only at School, maybe After School too. Now, No I am not talking about Myself, I am talking about Bullying in General. Now, Since There is much more Access to The Internet and Technology, Bullying can spread a heck of a lot faster than Just at School. These Days as much as I hate to imagine this but Kids These Days have Social Media and of Course, Phones. By Social Media, usually it just means Snapchat or Instagram; “The Kids Version of Facebook”, as a Friend’s 13 Year Old told me a couple years ago. Of Course, Yes, There are Kids who sneak onto Facebook and Most often It is on YouTube. “Keyboard Warriors”, I have heard Youtubers referred to them as. As well as “Haters” or Most Commonly “Trolls”. Bullying can happen anywhere these Days. The Key to all this is to Report it. To an Adult or A Symbol of Authority. So, The Moral of The Story is not just to watch Your Kids but, Also Be Involved in Their Life, Talk to Them Every Night at Dinner and Chances anytime You get. and, Of Course, It goes without Saying to Spread Love! So, with that said, I am going to rerun a Newsletter about My Thoughts about Bullying! Enjoy!  

This Newsletter was Originally Written on July 10th of 2013 (Refer to Newsletter 359)

So, This Week’s Newsletter is going to get a little Personal, about Something that concerns us all. It is known as Bullying. As hard as it is to say, You can’t go through Life without being Bullied and You have gone through without it, then You are very lucky. Now, I say that, “Concerns Us All” because it concerns not only PTLS Family Members but, also even the rest of us. For Those PTLS Family Members, I don’t mean to scare you in any way, I just want you to know what could be ahead (and, hopefully, it won’t be). As for Me, I was bullied in 5th Grade by a few kids in My Class. One Day, I was just sitting there and then, they started throwing Spitballs at Me. Considering that I had Texture Issues, I didn’t like the feel of the Spit Balls (I mean Who doesn’t). Anyway, It continued day after day while annoying me increasingly. After I told My Mom and My Brother about it, Our Childhood Meredith asked My Mom what would the risk be if she beat them up. My Mom told her what the consequence was and Meredith said, “Okay!” Talk about Support! I remember one day My Mom came to School to have lunch with me and they started throwing spitballs at me and eventually, I broke down and cried; My Mom on the other hand, She literally jumped out of the chair and flew over to those kids. Nearing 5th Grade Graduation, My Mom had a Genius Idea. She went to The Principal and they set up where The Kids that were nice to me (including Meredith) awards, to give the other kids a lesson in how to treat others. It would really help when Kids would ask My Mom about Me because I talked funny or acted less-than My Age (which is common in PTLSers anyway) and she would explain to them that I learned differently and Talked Differently but that was I was Unique, I had something called Dup.17p11.2 or A Duplication of Chromosome 17 (This was before Potocki-Lupski Syndrome was named). By The Way, I think I need to mention about the “Half-Age” thing. It generally said that us PTLSers in the way of age-appropriate behaviors, we are Half Our Age. However, there are times when we are more than our age, for me that is when it is about Geography and When I am Writing. I like to think of it more like this.. When I’m around Kids because there are No Adults to talk to or The Kids Stuff seems more fun, than I act less my age because I am imitating them. However, If I am around Adults (by Adults, I mean above 30), then I act more of My Age or sometimes even above it. So, I’m sure you are asking, “Was School Hard for You?(In The Way of Bullying)” It wasn’t that hard, the 5th Grade was the only time that I had bullies. As For My Advice about it, first thing to do would be to ignore it because they want a reaction out of you. If there are No Reactions, They will not Bully (do tell someone like Parents, Teacher, or Person of Authority); If it continues then, You tell them to Stop; if they don’t then You move toward The Principal (or Someone of Higher Authority). Of Course, On the rare occasion that the bully is an adult, then Kill Them with Kindness. A Big Way of Bullying to Me is Hurtful Words, They hurt me the most. It doesn't matter what Hurtful Word that they say, even if they are joking (which usually they are) it hurts me very deeply and it is something that I never forget. All in all, I conquered having a bully and I know that Other PTLSers can too.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Whether you have a Bully or You are a Bully, Stop Them!