Happy World Down Syndrome Day

I always find children to be a bountiful source of inspiration.  Looking for something inspiring to post for World Down Syndrome Day, I asked my six year old twins if they had a message for the occasion.  To put it in age appropriate terms, I asked them specifically, if they had a message for Wyatt, their best friend's baby brother (who turned a year old with his twin sister just over a month ago) who has Down Syndrome.  I found a SMILE treasure trove of Support, Motivation, Inspiration, Love and Education in their responses.


"What do you love about about Wyatt?"

If you could make a wish to give to Wyatt, what would you want him to have for his future? 

This came out of my daughter's mouth almost verbatim. Wow! I'm glad my husband replenished the reachable kleenex supply yesterday. My son's response made me equally proud, especially after several conversations about keeping our hands to ourselves:

After a long list of "firsts" that most infants transitioning into toddler-dom experience, we agreed that we could sum up the first steps, first teeth, first words, first jump, skip and hop, first tree climbed, first joke shared and the endless other firsts that continued after into the following:

Happy World Down Syndrome Day, Wyatt.

Happy World Down Syndrome Day to all.

Around the World: Vienna Comforts

March 21, 1992

After a light breakfast, I walk to the train station and phone Uwe, one of the backpackers I met in India.  He arrived home just a few days ago and is excited to learn that I am in Austria.  When he hears I am planning to visit Vienna, he gives me directions to his home and invites me to stay for a few days.

At the station, I get on a train, thinking I'm bound for Vienna.  It's a chilly day and drizzling cold rain so I'm more preoccupied with finding a warm and dry shelter rather that checking where I'm going.  My lack of attention delivers me to a switching station a few kilometers outside of Graz.  The station master invites me up to the tower, out of the rain, and pours me a cup of tea.  I think he's as delighted with the company as I am to be waiting inside for another train to arrive.

An hour and a half later, I'm back on a train, this time headed in the right direction and soon arrive in Vienna.  Following Uwe's directions, I am unprepared and delighted with Vienna's open and expressive architecture.  I'm used to doorways, pillars and windows on older buildings being decorated with a human form.  This human form is usually female, covered in a loosely draped cloth that walks a fine line between modesty and pornographic.  It's a human body.  It's art.  It's not intended to be nor should it be taken as offensive.  The first of these architectural adornments I discover in Vienna is of a male form.  All that is the defining glory of man is right there, covered in nothing but a warm breeze.

After being in places where women are considered inferior, and after being subjected to the unwelcome and unwanted physical contact of presumptuous perverts, this doorway decoration fills me with hope.  The plentiful carved figures of naked men and partially exposed women adorning the buildings gives me the sense that I, woman, am now in gender equal territory.

Naked is the form the human body comes in.  It is not intended to be, nor should it be taken as offensive, and it certainly shouldn't be abused or molested.  Whether this is true of Vienna culture or not is unknown, but for the first time in months, it's certainly refreshing to have the sense that my personal space will be respected.

"Careful with that axe, Theseus"

Uwe lives in a small, one bedroom flat about an hour's walk from the train station.  He leaves shortly after I arrive, apologizing that he promised to meet a friend for a sauna, but invites me to make myself at home until he returns.  I decide to prepare dinner for Uwe and his girlfriend, Elisabeth to thank them for their hospitality.

Vienna closes at noon today (Saturday) and won't open again until Monday morning.  It's nice to have a place to stay that won't lock me out during the day.

• ¤ •

“If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice.”

~Abigail Adams

Around the World: Graz

March 20, 1992

Breakfast includes a giant pot of coffee, buns with jam and pretzels.

The hostel is close to the university and the old part of town.  I followed the hilltop clock tower to find the Schlossberg, or Castle Mountain. 

Castle Mountain.  Photo by Jean François Riemer,
courtesy of Wikipedia Creative Commons

After climbing the twisty steps to the top, I am greeted by a delightful scene of spring in all its glory.  Flowers are in bloom and two small cafes are bustling with people enjoying a pleasant day and the scent of flowers on the breeze.

Clock tower. Photo courtesy
Wikipedia Creative Commons

Using the clock face to tell time is disorienting, and it takes me almost 20 minutes to figure out why.  The original clock only included one hand to mark the hour.  A smaller minute hand was added later.  Every time I look at the clock for the time, I have to take this into account and find it's just easier to ask someone with a watch.

Around 2pm, it starts to rain.  When I arrive at the hostel, the front door is locked and a sign hung on the window explains that this happens everyday between 1 pm and 4 pm for an afternoon nap.  I wish I had known this about an hour ago.  Fortunately, a nearby store opens at 3, and as long as I can feign browsing the selection of wine and chocolate, I can stay dry until the hostel unlocks the entrance.

When the hostel finally opens, my most important mission is to warm the damp out of me in the hot shower.  Back in the room, my Australian roommate greets me with a bottle of wine to share while we look up words and phrases in my German - English dictionary.

• ¤ •

"Ticking away the moments 

That make up a dull day, 

Fritter and waste the hours

in an off-hand way..."

~Time, Pink Floyd