Leo Clement

We are still here. Sorry for the long pauses between posts, we have been totally and utterly consumed with moving and making house. Justin has reminded me several times that moving is right up near the top of the list of the most stressful things. There is something deeply unsettling when your home comes down around your ears in boxes. Things are just things, but even little man will tell you, things help make a place "home," instead of just a house. Walking through our old and now empty cabin feels strange and impersonal, while our new home, now slowly emerging from boxes and bins, feels more familier though we have only lived here a couple days so far. The transition hasn't been all roses however, between bouts of a renegade stomach bug that cycled through all of us, at times, it has seemed downright hellish. Leo also, seemed to react to the vibe in the air and rebeled in the only way he could. By blackmailing me to stay right next to him at his beck and call. Usually,

Yesterday Nika was watching the old BBC movie about animals, the one intriguingly titled, "Animals are Beautiful People," and I noticed that every segment had something to do with symbiotic relationships. My favorite part was the one with the bumbling young honey badger and the guide bird that takes it under its wing (ahem) and shows it how to obtain the good stuff. The honey... Once the badger conquered the hive, he made sure to save part of the honeycomb for the bird. There were many other examples like this; different animals coming together and working as a team to obtain something good for both. Funny how the title compares animals to people, but we humans in our society have tried to get rid of this characteristic. Everything about our educational system, about our so called life expectations are geared towards making one completely independent, relying on no one. This philosophy is carried to such an extreme that a person is judged by how potentially self-sufficient h

Perhaps you have seen these articles, or noticed the sudden interest in the "special needs world," that has been stirring the past few weeks. More often I have noticed headlines or photos catching my eye that strike my core. Things ranging from Target's or JCPenny's use of Down Syndrome children in their adds, or like the article I saw today, about a couple with CP who are being threatened with the removal of their own baby, because of the assumptions based on their diagnosis. Suddenly there is a flurry of material presenting the world of special needs and the drain they pose for our society. Horrors, they exclaim, think of all those handicapped children growing up! They are kinda small and easy to ignore as babies and children, but as adults?! What shall we do with them? We certainly can't let them out and about, and to keep them home requires all kinds of special funds! Who is going to pay for it? And then the articles go on to show pictures of run down and brok