Tiny Delights

I thought the above was the title of a charming book by Ross Gay but turns out it’s a Chinese Dim Sum cookbook. Ross Gay’s book is called “The Book of Delights” but in either case, both well express the pleasure of small moments when the world offers its tasty charm. 

 

Today’s came from the 1^st through 3^rd graders at the Crane School in Rochester, NY. A few samples: 

 

• Sincere friendly hellos from kids passing me in the hall. 

 

• A boy who shook my hand and said he had seen my movie and thought I was a nice person.

 

• A girl who stood up in the middle of the group of kids to dance while we were singing. These wonderful teachers understood that though it seemed a bit disruptive, she needed to do it and indeed, is the response every music teacher would hope for. So they simply moved her off to the side where she kept on dancing. And later she corrected me when I made a mistake in a verse to one song. Of course, I thanked her.  

 

• A girl who asked me as the end if I would see them again and when I said I didn’t think so, stuck out her lower lip in pouty sadness. 

 

• Another girl who found a scrap of paper and asked for my autograph. 

• Many kids who refused my goodbye high five and hugged me instead. 

 

• 95 happy kids singing eight of the 150 songs I could have sang with them. 

 

Add this to the normally shy 4-year old who asked me at the end of my D.C. workshop if she could play Miss Mary Mack with me and came with her parents for the lunch afterwards and hugged me spontaneously many times. 

 

• Rick Layton’s dog Bella who from the moment we met seemed excited to see me and kept clamoring for my attention, something Rick thought was a little unusual. 

 

Without any effort on my part—except a lifetime of keeping my own inner child alive— young kids (and one dog) somehow feel connected to some vibe that radiates out to them and we’re immediately old friends. Like my Pokemon card friend from Macau (remember him?), it’s an ongoing bestowal of the Honorary Doctorates I treasure the most. 

Tomorrow will be the adults who will perhaps unleash their own inner child, but many first having to break through their notions of adulthood seared into their brain. Even when they feel the unbridled joy of spontaneous play, some part of them still distrusts that and wonders, “But what about the curriculum?!”