Out of the Mouths of Babes

At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

Matthew 11:25
(KJV)

9/11/2006

This is a true anecdote.

I live with my mentally challenged sister. She is 32 years old. She can take care of herself, for the most part, but comprehension is not her strong suit. Simple thoughts and ideas that we take for granted, become complex problems in her mind. It is not that she is "stupid" it is just that she has a different way of processing information.

A perfect example of this would be her ability to tell you what day of the week you were born on if you give her your birthday or know exactly what day and date it was when she went to the dentist to get her wisdom teeth pulled...ten years ago. She equates everything with time. Measurable, finite, exact time. She is constantly looking at her watch for the hour to change. All the clocks in the house...VCRs, coffee makers, cable boxes, radios, etc... have to be synchronized. At times, this behavior can be disturbing. But there are other times, when she is telling me that she, "... went with daddy to see 'Stanley and Iris' with Robert DeNiro and Jane Fonda, on Sunday, February 11, 1990," it can be truly amazing.

But she also says things like:

"Mel Torme. Do you know a person by the name of Mel Torme? Is that a male or a female?"

"I got two BigMacs, a 20 piece Chicken McNuggets and a Super Sized Fries. That's it."

"Do you know Rudolph Giuliani? Was he Governor or President?"

"I don't mind you buying me dinner but..."

By reporting these statements, I am NOT trying to make fun of her. That is the last thing I want to do. There is nothing funny at all about my sister's lot in life. She was dealt a really shitty hand and she is playing it the best way she knows how. The only thing that keeps this a notch above tragedy is the fact that she is trying to understand. Her mantra is, "I'm just like everybody else."

No. The reason why I mention these quotes is preface.

Anyway, most of our "conversations" consist of her rambling and me nodding. These ramblings are an interesting mix of a stream of consciousness yet completely focussed on one specific subject. This subject is usually about some obscure incident that happened in school or some other social interaction either at the store or in our building. Rarely does it involve anything current. And rarer still if it is about anything that is universal or relatable. I would say 80 percent of the time these speeches are about places and events that happened at least 10 years ago.

Being that yesterday was the eve of the fifth anniversary of September 11th…and again she is uncanny with dates…she came into my room in the middle of the afternoon because she wanted to talk. What follows is close to verbatim, to the best of my memory.

"Do you know what tomorrow is? It is the fifth anniversary of the Twin Towers! Do you know what happened at the Twin Towers? That's right. You know. You were there right? That's how we found out. You called us and told Mommy. You called and told her...

(She started what she calls "a role play")

Mommy, Lawrence is on the phone SOMETHING HAPPENED AT THE TWIN TOWERS!'

What? - Hello… Oh, oh my Goodness.

(Then back to me)

They blew the Twin Towers up to start a war and all that, right? There still is a war now, right? In Iraq, right?

(She started talking to the cats, which she often does)

But don't worry guys. Where's Manny? Where's Meng? Oh there you are!

(She picked up Manny, the younger of the two, who sauntered out from under the bed)

Don't worry. I'm not trying to scare you. The war is in Iraq. We will be OK.

(Manny immediately meowed)

Oh OK. I'll put you down now.

(After a long pause, she started to talk to me again.)

You know, I'm curious about something. I have a question for you and maybe you could answer it. This may sound stupid but they blew up the Twin Towers because they wanted to start a war right? What do blowing up the Twin Towers have to do with Iraq anyway?"

Absolutely nothing.

Don't ever forget…
The pain...
The suffering...
The death...

…and whose watch it was on.
Larry