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!

The Christianville Spirit: Friends and My Personalities

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

July 31st, 2019-TCS # 649

Happy August, My Readers! Yes, Folks! It is that time of Year! Not only is it My Birthday next week, My 32nd actually. But, Something that comes with being an August Baby. It is Back to School Time! For Those in The US, We start a New Grade in August, where as in places like Australia, A New Grade starts in January or somewhere near that. Anyway, Funny Thing about being born in August, You learn that School always starts either before, on, or after My Birthday. Now, I Realize that I am writing This Newsletter on July 31st but, It is August already in Most Parts of The World, so to You, I wish You a Happy August! So, On to This Week’s Newsletter! So, In My Years of Being an Adult, You start to Realize Things. Some Things You want to know about in Yourself, Your Friends, Your Family and, so on. And, Some of course, that You did not realize until Now that change your view on Said Thing or Said Person. I would like to say that Everything is Rose-colored Glasses but, Not Everything. You See, I have discovered about Myself and My Personalities. Now, don’t get me wrong, I won’t hate Myself or My Personalities, but They frustrate me because They often don’t mix Very Well. I know that Everyone has different Personalities that often conflict. Some People have so Many Personalities that They don’t even know what to deal with. My Mom and I’s Friend jokes about the feeling of having at least 14 “Personalities” (Not that she does) and Get a good laugh about it. Me, of course, I have 3 “Personalities” that want to get involved in Everything no matter how mundane it is. Now, for Most People, They have a Personality for What I call, Your Personal (Life, Love, and Family) and Professional Life (meaning Work and/or Something that You are Passionate about). Because My Personal Life and Professional Life often mix, I have the Three. My Three Personalities of course are Romanticism, Special Needs Logic, and Reality. Often Times, I feel that Romanticism is The One that likes to Rule over but, Is often the one that gets shot down a bit because The Others feel that They are More Important. Oh! The Life of a PTLSer, Let me tell ya! 

So, Romanticism, What is that? It is basically My Heart, The Stuff I truly believe in, The Stuff that I dream about and in some odd way, They come True. It is My Future Life that I picture where Everything in My World, My Family, PTLS Realm, and My Love Life are All Meshing Together in Peace. But, It is also Seeing The Good in Everyone and Everything, and Only The Joys and Happiness in Life. Which is The Thing that can get me in Trouble. When My Romanticism says Things that are not True, I have a Hard Time believing that It is not True.

Funny Thing, I could probably mention this to My Friend, Deb; My PTLSers Friends; and, a PTLS Family Member and They would totally get it. Basically, It is Everything that a Romantic Comedy or Hallmark Christmas Movie is made out of. Not Only A Life where You Fall in Love, Stay Together your Whole Life never letting go of Each Other, Cuddle all The Time, Hold Each Other when You are Upset, Laying underneath The Really Pretty Looking Christmas Tree, and Of Course, have Massive Amounts of Christmas in Your House. To Me, that is What I picture My Future Life of The Woman of My Dreams, Bridgett to be like. Come to Think of It, The Whole Idea of Bridgett probably came through because My Romanticism. I was talking to My PTLS Friend about it, Laughing at Myself as I was Describing it, saying that Romanticism is like a Log Cabin all Beautiful and Pretty and To put it nicely, Christmas came in, got Sick, and Threw up Everywhere in Juust the Right Places. My Special Needs Logic would say, “Yeah, Let’s Do that! It can be done in One Day!” and Reality says that It can not be Done in One Day, It would take Several Days! Either that, or A lot of Patience. Something that Us PTLSers struggle with Sometimes. The Easiest Way to Talk about Romanticism, would be Where My Rosy-Colored Glasses are. Honestly, in The Most Humble Way, I think that aspect of My Personality is probably Why People Love Me so much! And, I am Very Honoured!

So, Then Comes My Special Needs Logic. My Special Needs Logic is basically The Belief that Anything can Happen that Romanticism wants, but With Some (keyword here, Some) Work, It can happen. You can have a Christmas Romanticism House but, You have to remember that It is not a “Let’s Decorate on December 1st and It’s all Done”, Although with Some Extra Patience Yes, It could be Done. Most Often when It comes to Which of My Personalities that I have a Hard Time telling the difference between is My Romanticism and My Special Needs Logic. For Example, Growing Up with My Childhood Friends, We had a Close Relationship, We hung out together and Did Pretty much Everything together. So, My Romanticism thought that We would always be Friends and Do Things together in Life. My Special Needs Logic tells me that It is still Possible to resume Doing Things Together I tried contacting them, which I have. But, Reality, at least at the Moment, says No. My Special Needs Logic has a Hard Time understanding it. Now, In My Mind, My Special Needs Logic sounds like that of a Child, “I Think I Can!”. But, Really, It is the Personality that has to be The One to balance Reality and Romanticism, Something is Hard for Me to Understand Some things that happen in Life because of My Special Needs Logic and Romanticism not balancing.

And, Finally, There is The Reality part. People in Romantic Comedies would call it, being a Realist. Now, Baring in Mind, Yes, No Matter how many Personalities that A Person has, should always have a “Realist” Section of It.

Reality is The Point in which, You have to Put Your Dreams into Reality. Which in all Honestly, is rather Scary because Reality can be The One to Mess it up and turn it in Something that You don’t recognize. Like, This Dream, Whatever It is, is not what I wanted, Not what I pictured. Reality can be Two Things, Very Confusing in both! It can either be The Best Thing in The World, Blessings all around! and, Of Course, Reality can become warped, in which Pardon My Language but, Reality Sucks sometimes! Perhaps, The Dreams I had with My Childhood Friends, I mentioned Earlier can become Reality. Maybe not at this Moment in Time but, Talk to It, in say 3 to 5 Years and Perhaps, Things will be flipped back to where We started. All in all, as a PTLSer, A Person with Special Needs, It is Very Hard to understand and accept the differences between All 3 Personalities.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. In This Technical World We Live In, Place Value on Friendships.

The Christianville Spirit: Wishing on a Vacation

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

July 24th, 2019-TCS # 648

Wah’ Gwaan, My Readers! I have used This Greeting before. I feel that This Greeting from Jamaica in The Most Unique out of The Greetings that I have used. Except, Maybe Ćiao from Slovakia. But, This Greeting means What’s going on or What’s Up in Jamaican Patois. It is pronounced “Wa-Goo-Ahn”. Jamaican Patois or Jamaican Creole basically sounds like Slang Words and English Words, mashed together. You learn something new Everyday! My Readers, I would be Lying if I did not say that I Wish I was Swaying on The Beach! Watching The Blue-as-Blue-can-get Water and Listening to The Water Rush, while sitting (or Swaying) under a Palm Tree. That is The Life! Why am I Saying This, You ask?! You are Blessed in Your life, Christian?! You need More?! Okay. Well, I am both blessed in My Professional Life (In The PTLS Realm) what with All the Wonderful Families I call friends and What Not. As well, as My Personal Life. Got a Brilliant Mom! Not Everyone can say That! and, of Course, I have a Brilliant Brother as well. Shout to My Brother, Michael! But, At The Same Time, You know how there are Times, Probably more than You and I can count, where Your Friends are doing something, or are Somewhere that You wish You were. This Week, that is Me. Two of My Friends and One of My Childhood Friends are off on The Beach. I kind of wish I was there with Them. or Better yet, Both Friends at The Same Beach and We are Beachin’ It Together. Now, that would be Awesome! The Same could be said of People whose Friends are all getting Married, Having Grandchildren, and so on. Sign Me Up for The Married, not for The Grandchildren, Thanks! With Everyone going on Vacation, There are Some of Us that either don’t want to go on Vacation. Wait a Minute, Seriously, Who could Resist Vacation?! It is a Scary World out There! or Perhaps, Their Company only gives them a Little bit of Vacation, like 2 Weeks only. I digress. Or Most Commonly They can not afford to go on Vacation, or at least Paid Vacation anyway. And, Yes, Believe it or not, There are Parts of The World (Many Parts) that allow for Paid Vacation. Getting into Triggering Politics..ahem (Clearing Throat). Okay, Folks! Let’s Focus on The Fascinating Part of Different Countries, not necessarily The Triggering. So, For Those of You, who can not go on Vacation, I am going to do a Rerun, not about Vacation but, Maybe Countries to Dream about. Maybe as Modern People would say “Something to live Vicariously Though”. So, Have a Happy Trip in The Information about Different Counties. Enjoy and Sway Away! 

This Newsletter was written on July 22nd of 2015 (Refer to Newsletter 458)

Bonjour, My Readers! I would have to say that “Bonjour” is One of My Favorite International Greetings! Bonjour, Hello in French, It just seems to flow when You say it. Anyway, On to This Week’s Newsletter! So, As You know, I Love Geography, Road Signs, and Travel, but You Know, what also fascinates me? Stats. As in Statistics. No, I don’t mean Statistics about Sports like Baseball or Football, believe me, When I handed them out when I worked at The Frisco Roughriders half of The people did not read The Baseball Statistics that We had to put in Programs we passed out. I am interested in International Stats as well as Stats about My Own Country. You See, Other than My Own Research and Curiosities about Different Parts of The World, I check This Site on Tumblr every day called “Maps on The Web” (www.mapsontheweb.tumblr.com) I was curious about Stereotype Maps and Somehow, I found Maps on The Web. It shows me Maps of All Kinds, Stereotype Maps; Income Maps of The World and/or The US; A Map of Europe showing The Nation’s official name in their Native Language, like Did You know that The UK (also called “United Kingdom” or “Great Britain”, depending on where You are from) is actually called “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”? Hmm, That would explain the Various Names of Calling It. Sort of like, The Netherlands which has an AD (Authoritative Division) that is North Holland and South Holland. So, The Netherlands is called both “Holland” (referring to State of North Holland and Country, or both). Yeah, Europe is VERY Complicated in It’s Names and How Things work. It probably sounds like The Most Amazing Part of The World, Sorry but, that is My Own Bias. One Map showed how the International Dateline goes through The South Pacific with all of it’s Island including Fuji, Guam, American Samoa, and French Polynesia, among Many Others. I saw One recently that showed The Average Age in which Men and Women get Married in Several States, in Texas It is 26.9 for Women and Men is 28. Other States, it is Older or Younger. One Stat about a Country really fascinates me. You See, My Mom’s Friend has been going to Costa Rica for Business Trips and Costa Rica, although I know that it exists in The World, It has not been on My Radar of Places that I am Interested in. After She got back, I started researching on My Own about Costa Rica and This is where it gets fascinating. So, knowing that Costa Rica is Pretty Small Country compared to say, France, Sweden, or Norway, is The Most Stable, Most Green, Most Progressive Country in ALL of Central America. Now, Central America is not a Very Big Area, You have Mexico, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras (which is The Murder Capitol of The World, By The Way), Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and finally Panama (as in, The Home of The “Panama Canal”). I wonder though, How is that possible that Costa Rica is The Most Stable of Those Countries? Many Reasons I am sure, but One is the Love of The Word, “Pura Vida” (pronounced Pure-uh, Vee-dah). It is Costa Rican Spanish for “Pure Life”. They use it so much it has Many Meanings, among them; Hi, How are You, Great! or Okay, and Thank You. I guess, The Tone of Your Voice matters a lot! One List of Stats that Fascinate me The Most is The Happiest Countries List and Peaceful Countries List. It always makes me wonder, With Respect to Said Countries, Why is it Countries in The North like Canada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, or Switzerland are The Happiest and Peaceful Nations in The World? The United States in always in the Teens or 20’s on that List. Likely because of Their Way of Life, in Sweden for example, You can Camp anywhere in The Woods you want to, as long as You respect Private Property and People’s Privacy. Also, In Europe, They Live to Work and They have at least a Month of Paid Vacation Days. In The US, Don’t Get Me Wrong, Guys! I Love My Country, The United States; But, Here we Work to Live and Vacation Days are as Low as Two Weeks if not Less. That would Explain Our Happiness Rating Here! In Happy Countries, They trust Their Government, which many of them are Monarchies, We on The other Hand, Don’t. So, My Last Question for Those that are Curious, Who does all these Stats? Tons of Researchers and Interviewers from Organizations like Forbes, CNN Money, Pew Research Center, and Of Course, The CIA World Fact Book. The CIA World Fact Book is the one who likely knows all of The Stats and Keeps Track of Them. All in all, I could go on and on about All The Stats and Facts I learn but, That would be VERY Long! We live in a Fascinating World filled with Facts, both Good (like World Peace and Happiness) and Bad (Who did What War), You just have to Open Your Mind and Learn about it, without too much American Bias. By The Way, Why do We call Ourselves “America” or “American”? Because We are called “The United States of America” which is part of “The Americas”.

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Rock On with Your Stats! 

The Christianville Spirit: Words that You Call People Rerun

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Knows Love

July 17th, 2019-TCS # 647

I have PTLS and I am Proud, My Readers! Woah! This one is another Greeting of Mine that really means a lot! I have PTLS, ahem...(Clearing Throat) I am PTLS and I am Proud. Literally! As My Lil’ PTLS Sis’, McKenna would say! Yes, I realize that Yeah, I am sure that There are Parts of PTLS or Potocki-Lupski Syndrome that We PTLSers don’t like such as Anxiety or Easily Being taken advantaged of, but There is Something that All of Us PTLSers would not take away, Our PTLSers. It seems like Every Conference, Us PTLSers discuss things like Typical Adults do, but at The Same Time, We do talk about things in the PTLS Realm. A Couple Conferences ago in 2015, It was about Many Things including The Word, “Disability”, The Word “Mentally Retarded”. My Apologizes for that without a Language Warning! I should have mentioned at The Time that We were breaking down the Words like “Disability” Dis and Ability. You have the Ability to do something until You put the Dis before It. Last Conference in 2017, It was The First Time that I had met My (now) Lil’ PTLS Sis’, McKenna. I wrote The Following about Her in My Newsletter after I met Her. (Quoting Myself from 2017, Refer to The “PTLS Conference 2017” Newsletter, if You have not read it)  “This Day, We had McKenna join us in Manning The Table. I will Tell You, McKenna is like a Mini-Me, not in Looks Wise, but The Things that She says. She only got The Diagnosis a Year and a half ago, and She embraces it like She knew She had it Her Whole Life and Truth be told, She did. As She will tell you, “Just treat me like a Normal Person” (Boy, that sounds like Me Because I say that all the Time) and That She was Happy when She was told that She had PTLS, like It was The Biggest Relief. Yes! That is what I Like to Say! By The Way, McKenna also confirms that Yes, Us PTLSers get Very Overwhelmed if Their Family takes them to Disney World. YES!! We All agreed to That One!” So, It seems fitting to Mention about All of Us PTLSers, Tyler, Stacy, McKenna, Allison, and Madison all agreed on. We all asked each other if There was Cure (And, We all know that being The Future, There eventually will be). We all agreed that although There maybe Some Things in PTLS that We may or may not like, We all would NOT Take The Cure. We agreed though, If It helped with Things a little bit (Assuming that There are No Side Effects. Which We knew that There would be) If There was a Side Effect, NO We would not take it. But, If It helped us, without The Side Effect then, Our Answer was Maybe. In this Conference, After Meeting Madison, who at First all of us did not think that We would click so well, We all did. Thinking about it, Madison, is as I told both her and McKenna, She is sort of like an “Adult McKenna” with the Same Embracing of PTLS that McKenna had as well as The Same Thought Mentality as McKenna. As I was saying, It makes me (Well, Us!) proud to say that We have, We are PTLS, It is makes us Very Proud.

So, With that Said, I am going to Rerun a Newsletter about Words that are used to Call People with Special Needs, Some are Okay to use, Others are not. This Newsletter will teach you about The Words to Say! I present to You, “Words that You call People”! Enjoy!

This Newsletter was originally written on July 15th of 2015 (Refer to Newsletter 457)

Howdy, My Readers! Thought I would do different greetings every now and then. “Howdy”, by the way, said better as “Howdy Y’all”, is What we say in Texas to say hello. Y’all, by the way is Texas Short-Hand for You All. Anyway, on to This Week’s Newsletter! So, Among the Many Things that us Young Adult PTLSers talked about at The PTLS Conference was The Meaning of Different Words that People used to refer to those with Special Needs. Also, How do we feel about “having Special Needs”? Well, The Truth is that I am aware that I have Special Needs, I embrace the Fact that I have Potocki-Lupski Syndrome, but at The Same Time, It is NOT Me. Not in the Way of Denial but, In a Way, that I personally don’t see that I have Special Needs because I am just Me, Christian. It might also help to the fact that I have had Potocki-Lupski Syndrome or Duplication 17p11.2 for My Whole Life, so really I don’t know any different. So, About The Words to refer to One with Special Needs, There are 4 Terms to use. A Disability, Handicap, Mentally Retarded or The R-Word of All Variations, and Someone with Special Needs. I, as well the Young PTLS Adults would prefer The Last One. Another One is that People think that PTLS is a Disease and I can assure you that It is Not. PTLS just happens, No Other Way to Explain It, It just happens. I see it more like it is a Serendipitous Accident, in other words, it is part of Your Destiny somehow. Anyway, Let’s Examine these Words. Now, I know that Words are Words but Many of These Words have Meanings. First Word is Disability. Disability, as My Young PTLS Adult Friend from The Conference says and The Word, Dis means, Anti or Against Something. In Other Words, You can not do XYZ. Ability, however means that You can do something. So, to refer to Me as Disabled means that I can’t do all the Things I want to do in Life and That is NOT True! Now, to be fair, There are People who are Truly “Disabled”, It is harder to do things but, They are Strong Enough to try their Hardest at it. The Next Word is Handicapped, Because I am able to Walk and Function as Typical as I can, that does not apply to Me. Respectfully, There are People that are Handicapped, even those that Do not have Special Needs. The Best Thing that You can do is ask if They need Help, if They do then, Help them and Mission Accomplished, They will be Grateful to You. If Not, then that is Okay too. Now, Here comes a Word that I do not like to Say Often, nor do I like to be called. Now, This Word comes from The Fact that People like to Compare Kids that have Special Needs versus Those that Don’t and Sometimes, It turns Ugly. We refer to it as The R-Word, Retard (Sorry Kids!). Now, The Word, “Retard” is actually a Cooking Term. You Know, when You are cooking something and The Fire from The Pan gets too High, You have to retard it. This is The Pleasant Way that I see that word’s use. However, The Government at one time used the Word “Mentally Retarded” or “Mental Retardation” to mean Someone with Special Needs, doesn’t sound too bad, right? After Rosa’s Law, It is now “Intellectual Disability”. Now, You drop The Word “Mentally” off That Phrase and that is when It is meant for Harm toward those with Special Needs. People say it in a Funny or Stupid Way, like “Ohh, That’s so Retarded” or “Your So Retarded” (pointing at Whomever did something Stupid, not meant toward Someone with Special Needs). I had a Friend that said that a lot and It annoyed me each time He said it because Said Person had Special Needs! Luckily though, There is a Campaign out there called “Spread The Word to End The Word” (STW, I call it for short) It is at www.r-word.org, Sign the Petition and Stop using The R-Word! And, finally, The Phrase that I would rather be referred to as “Someone with Special Needs” because that is Me, “Someone with Special Needs”, better yet a “A Person with Special Needs” because after all, I am a Person, just like You. A bonus with This Phrase is that it applies across The Board and does not in any way Offend anyone or Make Someone feel Different. So, What about The Other Words, Can I use them too? I would prefer that You not, but If You have to, Change The Words around so They sound better. Disability, How about Differently Abled (regardless whether They are actually “Disabled” or Not). Handicapped, That One can not be changed much because it applies to those are a Truly Handicapped, but Don’t use it on Me because I don’t see myself as “Handicapped”! Mentally Retarded, All Versions of The Word should be Taken Away except for The Original Meaning, which is for Cooking. and, Someone, Person, or People with Special Needs is probably the Best Word to use. All in all, The Point here is that I am just like You. Yes, I may need a bit of Help in certain areas and Treated Kindly, but I deserve to be treated as if I was like Everyone Else. No Comparing, No Name Calling, and PTLS is NOT a Disease, It is Only a Label!

Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. We are all part of The World, We should Treat each other as Human Beings!