Edited - June 25th, 2017 - 2:00 pm to 2:32 pm
Lunch Break from School
Since I lived across the street from where I went to school in the 7th grade, I found myself going home for lunch most days if not every day.
I think that we were supposed to have a written permission note from my parents to leave campus for lunch as I observed others had the opportunity to get lunch off campus at a Wendy's within walking distance. And students might have gone to other places besides Wendy's. But for some reason I only remember Wendy's as a lunch place that people talked about. And since it was in junior high school, we were limited to places we could go within walking distance.
I never got a permission slip but was on time, so it was never an issue.
I'd walk home for lunch and I have vague memories of being in the kitchen. I'd see several people meeting, maybe about a dozen or so. The kitchen was filled with people drinking coffee and thoughtful energy moving around.
So, since I saw that people were busy meeting, I started to get my lunch together, maybe opening drawers and cabinets to get food and other items I needed.
I remember my mother would step in and make lunch for me. I think we had brief thoughtful exchanges, I'd say, "I got it, you're busy in a meeting". And my mother would say, "I got it" and I'd let her fix my lunch.
I think my perspective might have been a combination of empathy for my mother's perspective of being busy and my 7th grade adolescent self wanting to increase my independence.
I just realized now, June 25th, 2017 at 2:06 pm a little more understanding. Even though I don't like the medical model, I appreciate increasing my awareness of patterns in myself and others. I was diagnosed with autism about 36 years after going home for lunch from school. Looking back, I see a comfort level with going home for lunch and not eating lunch at school with peers. I feel like I had limited social interactions with peers, school staff and others.
During that time, I felt limited perspectives of my mother fixing my lunch and a general awareness of house meetings. And while I don't remember, know or understand all of the details, I feel like the meetings probably reflected addressing current issues, areas, concerns at the time. Maybe legal, justice, media, etc. Because meetings are one of many ways to address collective areas or ideas.
I'm so blessed and thankful that I can reference that and a lot of other experiences with my mother and my relationships with others in general. So, thanks ma and others.