Joy Junket

“Those are my Party Glasses.”—-Max Vandersteen

I love the idea of “Progress not Perfection.”  Progress can be hard to see when we measure ourselves against others’  idealized standards.  I found this book in my son Max’s backpack.  He’s really not interested in if you or I think he’s a star, because he’s already living it.  What a great example for me to remember that if I believe it and live it, it really doesn’t matter what other people think. 

Max is insistent in his rock star status.  He wears his party glasses in the fishing boat, only wants T shirts with sports teams or guitars on them, and has the Justin Beiber dance fever.  He does things his own way, when the children in his kindergarten class were asked to write a story about the local PTA food drive, Max casually walked up to his teacher’s desk and handed her a piece of paper.  She asked him if it was his story and he replied, “No, I wrote a song about it.”   

That little gesture then became an opportunity to sing his song over the PA system to the whole school the next morning, to which he agreed.  After his public performance at the PA, some 5th grade teachers asked if he could come to their room and sing the song in person (he did), and then the PTA got wind of the song and asked if they could print it up in their next newsletter!  (they did).    Before we knew it, we had a popular kindergarten rock star on our hands. 

One of our JJ Manifesto Points is to “Be the revelations someone else is looking for.”  So who are your teachers?  For me, it’s someone right in front of me.  Reminding me that I don’t need to measure up to anyone else’s standards, or even my own.  I can just start living my dream right now, and paying attention to what I love.  Progress sometimes IS perfection.

Everything is possible?  How about, “It’s already happening?”  —Suzi