weapons of massdistraction

I’m as American as the next gal, born and raised in the upper midwest. My Dad’s heritage is a minor mystery. He was adopted (and the family he was adopted into was small and non-cohesive) but a mystery met with more of a shrug than any hand-wringing or concern. My mother’s family, on the other hand, very strongly identified as Lebanese and with the Lebanese community here. Middle Eastern pride was instilled in me intentionally or not. But race, ethnicity, religion, other accidents of birth - all such nuances have been lost on my own offspring. Topics too large and abstract to interest him. Like many kids with autism his fixations have been unpredictable but generally more concrete, attention-grabbing and action-packed. Which was how I came to choose his summer camp. Multiple swimming pools and canoeing and kayaking and climbing walls and zip lines and horses and arts & crafts and overnight camping. I was hugely relieved when he immediately loved it the first year. This is his second summer and he remains just as enamored. But something has changed. He has started to pick up on the underpinnings of this not-quite-secular program. Over the 4th of July weekend a friend was goofing around and started chanting “USA! USA!” Without skipping a beat my son shouted back “ISRAEL! ISRAEL!” During a recent water balloon battle he filled up only white and blue balloons, telling me these were the colors of the Israeli flag. And he often speaks Hebrew when I pick him up after camp. Oy vey. I doubt I have a budding Zionist on my hands, but I’d like him to be amenable to learning about his Lebanese heritage and all sorts of other cultures before he turns into the Hebrew Hammer.

How about five pretty great things?

• The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee (via Honey Kennedy)
• Wondermark by David Malki
• I’d say True Blood season four is off to a spectacular start. I’ll admit to being a pretty big fangirl but I don’t pore over every offshoot web site.
• Oh dear. ‘National Toilets’ Complicate Life in Space - until this morning I don’t think I’d heard of the Institute of Biomedical Problems. Is this life, on the ground (pretending to be in space) post space shuttle?
• Today we picked up our Vasa Gardens half bushel. I love pay-as-you-want-it model rather than the other subscription based CSAs out there. Every other week is more than enough for our household of two.

I never really found my stride this Monday. Hoping the rest of the week doesn’t work me over / drag me under. I got to keep on moving! Or perhaps I just need more sleep. Yes. Sleep. So basic a need and so wondrous a luxury.