The Incredible Hulk

I have to admit, it was one of my favorite shows as a kid. The Love Boat, Happy Days, The Electric Company and of course The Incredible Hulk. Lately they have been showing old 1970s Hulk episodes on one of our TV channels although I am not sure which one. We have all become hooked. Today when we were driving home from this Optics camp that we spent the last two days participating in Sadie started talking to me about the different kids that she had met and how she went about meeting them and working through some of their many differences. We talked about how important it is in life to learn to work with other people that you like or that you don't like or that you meet in the line at the grocery store or that pull you over for speeding in your car. She tried explaining the rules of four square to me, a child hood game that has always eluded me and I am sorry to say still does. She told me the basic rules to this game that she plays all the time during FFC rehearsal with all of the FFC kids who have become like family to her. In the end she said, "We do a little playing.......... but most of the time we just work through the rules and argue over different aspects of the game until we all agree and continue to play." To some this may seem like a waste of time. In gym class this would have been wasted time. Kids get 45 minutes a week or day if lucky to play gym games and they need to move and have constant fixed rules. At the FFC the kids rule and it is true, although I would not have believed it many years ago, that the kids find rules that are for the most part equitable, respectful and that work for that group at that time. This of course prompted a long discussion about rules and flexibility. More important than workbooks, more important than tests.

I found out today that there is a lot to be learned from that beloved Hulk and we talked about it during and after the show as Jonah stripped naked and practiced his Incredible Hulk moves with Grampa John. The Hulk is in a particular dilemma. Why doesnt he just go get help? What if people found him and tried to cage him up like a wild animal? Would he escape? Would he die? How should we treat people and who can we call on in times of need? Where was his family?

Where was his family anyway?? I think about this a lot, family. You would have thought that somewhere there was a Mrs. Banner missing her large green son. Lord knows I would miss mine, green crazy hair ripped up pants.

Nora told me the other day out of nowhere that she had noticed that there were a lot of mothers who didn't like having their children around them. I have noticed that too lately and it makes me sad. At the doctors today the four of us were sitting there reading a book when a very impatient woman came in scolding her child about homework and just treating him horribly, rolling her eyes at the other mothers and I felt like there was something that they all understood that I didn't.

One thing I have noticed lately is that my son, the Backstrom Hulk, has grown a lot. My baby will be four and all of the sudden I am starting to want to peice together time. I tried to pick him up today and he didn't want me to. He is running through the house in a cape flying past Nora and yelling "Rawrrrrrrrrrrr" all chubby legs and fingers and I want to hold this time in my mind forever, this sweet, surreal magic time of childhood fairies and mysteries and wonder.