Skip to main content

Career Training



My nine year-old girl and six year-old boy have enjoyed discussing what they want to be when they grow up.  It’s been a hot topic of late, and when kids get to talking about it, there’s no limit.  Elisabeth’s list changes from day to day, but most recently she wants to be
-a vulcanologist
-a biology teacher 
-a teacher at a museum who teaches kids about animals, 
-a veterinarian
-a writer, or
-a veterinarian who writes books
Henry also wants to be a writer, or, if he can figure out how to make money this way, a lego collector.  As a writer he will write 3 books.  One will be 435 pages long, one 646 pages, and one 108.  The topics range from planet exploration to large dinosaurs.
Being the proud parent I am, I think our kids could do any of these things.  John even thinks Henry could figure out a way to make money selling legos.  
Today Elisabeth showed a trait that is
valuable in just about any job, but especially vulcanologist, veterinarian, or teacher: keeping your cool in a stressful situation.  And I proved my ability to make high drama out of something that’s really quite manageable, a.k.a. making a mountain out of a molehill.  
I’m still on the learning curve of dog ownership.  We gave Niobe a raw hide last week, and we let her have it for a while, then took it away when it got too gross.  Today I gave it to her for what I figured would be the last time because it was getting smaller, and as the package says, the rawhide should be larger than the dog’s mouth.  So I figured I needed to take it away before it got too small and she choked on it.
Meanwhile there was a science lesson, and Henry practicing piano, and I wasn’t exactly watching Niobe closely.  Then I heard a funny guttural noise and I thought, “Uh oh! The rawhide!”  I rushed to Niobe and tried to get the slimy piece from her.  But does any sensible dog want to give up something tasty?  She didn’t of course, and in my panic I thought she couldn’t let go of the rawhide and that it was lodged in her mouth.  Maybe sort of stuck sideways?  I wasn’t sure.  But in case it wasn’t stuck, I thought I’d offer her a treat and try to help her drop it.  So I put a treat on the floor hoping that she’d drop the rawhide.  Instead I heard more guttural and sort of coughing sounds as she tried to eat the treat without dropping the rawhide.  Oh dear, now what had I done?  Was it getting more and more stuck?  I made a few desperate grabs at the rawhide from between Niobe’s teeth.  I have learned that she is quite gentle, but I didn’t know how she’d take to me grabbing her treasure.  I was hovering somewhere between thinking the rawhide was stuck, or thinking that it was going to be stuck soon.  Niobe and I were both going a bit in circles at this point, and Elisabeth was watching us calmly.  
“I don’t know what to do!” I exclaimed.  “I don’t want her to choke.”  I grabbed the phone, wondering if I should call the vet or John.  I decided on John because I knew he knew how to handle my panic over anything, large or small. 
Meanwhile Elisabeth walked over to Niobe, with a soft and firm, “Sit, Niobe.”  Then “Drop it, drop it.”  Niobe, being the docile, but not exactly well-trained dog that she is, lay down on the floor, rawhide still in her mouth.  Elisabeth rubbed her belly.  Before John had even answered the phone, I reached in between those worn teeth, grabbed the slimy rawhide and threw it in the trash.  John answered the phone just in time to hear that everything was alright.
I think Elisabeth and I are well-matched.  This will be a good place for her career training.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Good Morning An der Wietze

(I don't have pictures to fit this topic, so these will have to do for now!) Today is Tuesday. John’s alarm rang at 5:20 or so, and he pushed snooze as usual. When it rang the second time, we heard another sound after he turned it off--Henry crying for us. He has been having a hard time getting to sleep lately, and wakes up easily in the morning. We’ve tried a towel at the bottom of the door to hide the light, and even stuffed the keyhole with tissue paper. He still manages to hear something. John turned on Henry’s cd again and tucked him in and told him he could get up when the CD ended, which would be about an hour. I slept for a few more minutes, then got up to start the day. I have not adjusted to coffee here yet. For a while we had a good Starbucks stash, and there is a Starbucks by the main train station in Hannover, but it is so expensive. I thought I should try out some different kinds here. A new friend of mine who is German and lived in California for 20 years...
3 comments
Read more

Bonn Ami

Beethoven in Bonn On Saturday we saw a little bit of Bonn, the former capital of West Germany.  In the morning we visited the Beethoven House    where Beethoven was born in 1770.  We walked around the tiny house for almost two hours, listening to our audio guides.  Our son, Mr. Numbers, made sure he listened to every track on his guide, all 32.  Elisabeth stopped periodically to draw pictures: the organ Beethoven played in a nearby church, two of the pianos he owned.  She said she wanted to go home and write music.  I was moved by the account, in Beethoven’s own words, of his hearing loss and his intense inner struggle.   We heard portions of his 5th and 9th symphonies as he would’ve heard them at the time they were first performed.  It was a barely audible muffled sound. Though Beethoven wanted to take his own life, he felt he could not, because of his burning desire to to the work he had to do, to write the music that was in his...
4 comments
Read more

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

I first heard Bryan Stevenson, defense attorney and founder of Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) on a podcast with Oprah Winfrey .   I felt like I was sitting in a living room talking with a friend. I was immediately grateful for the stories Bryan told and for the honesty with which he told them. I was humbled. Growing up, I had put people in boxes--in categories in my head--if you're in jail it's because you're a bad person. If you do drugs, you must be a bad person. But when I learned about my older brother's drug and alcohol addiction and how that changed his life, the boxes I put people in began to shift and crumble, and that shifting has changed my life. Listening to Bryan Stevenson continued to shift the boxes--why are some people on death row, why are so many of them black and brown. Why are so many of them from impoverished backgrounds. Just Mercy tells the story of how Bryan Stevenson founded Equal Justice Initiative to provide legal representation for those w...
Post a Comment
Read more