© April 10th, 2017 - 3:54 pm to 4:28 pm
Edited - April 16th, 2017 - 1:12 pm to 1:13 pm
We Tipped the Canoe in Tippecanoe County
One day, when I was at my mother and her husband's farm in Indiana, they said that they were going to go out on a canoe and invited me to join them. I accepted the invitation with great excitement. At one point, I was looking for them and didn't see them. So, I knew that they had gone without me and I was resigned to have missed the trip.
But later, we found each other and we went on a canoe trip. At one point, the canoe tipped over and I think that all three of us got wet. My mother's husband expressed anger and frustration at the experience or situation. One thing I remember he was mad about was a book that got damaged that he had that was signed by a friend or something similar. It was a special and unique material item, that was either limited or an only item that couldn't be replaced.
My mother was on the other side of expressions. She just laughed at the situation and tried to get her husband to see her perspective, with limited results. My mother's response was just to laugh at the situation and verbalizing her thoughts and feelings to match her response.
Now, I was in the middle. Maybe I looked up to both my mother and her husband for ways to react as a parent and parental figure. I think that I was in my 30's. Now, after being diagnosed with Autism, I see how that might have related to my response. I could see both responses as valid. I see all feelings as valid and our expression of them needs to not be harmful to ourselves and others. I could understand a response about losing a special or sentimental item. My mother's husband's book got damaged when the canoe was tipped over. I can be very sentimental. But I could also see my mother's response as not only valid, but appealing. And I think that I leaned more toward responding with humor at the situation than anger. At one point, someone made the connection that we tipped the canoe in Tippecanoe County.
And in the big picture, there was a battle of Tippecanoe, which according to Wilkepedia, was fought on November 7th, 1811. I don't know much about that battle. My limited understanding is through Wilkepedia, in which the U.S. government was trying to take over in areas in which there were Native Americans.
So, the battle of Tippecanoe relates to how we relate to stories, history, different perspectives, our current lives, etc. And as I reflect on the canoe being tipped over, I have 2 main thoughts. One, I appreciate my mother's response to these situations. Seeing humor and relating to experiences or situations lightly, can be healing because it not only doesn't add stress but it takes it away. Approaching things with humor might also help shed some light moving forward. Also, when I think about the battle of Tippecanoe, our canoe tipping over, doesn't feel that dramatic or traumatic. In other words, people involved in that battle were dealing with life and death issues. While our experience with the canoe tipping over had different dynamics, our lives weren't at stake.