Walking snow meditation

No, I am not that together, but as I was blowing and shoveling snow this morning -- before coffee and sustenance and so maybe I was delusional -- I thought what a nice thing it would be to snow blow the sidewalks around my whole block after a big storm. Paying backwards and forwards for a million little things my neighbors have done, a million smiles and pleasant greetings, and to make those who scowl or ignore a dog walker like me smile. Who knows it could start some sort of community trend.


Is that what I am looking for, idea wise, for the PTO?


Recently, I heard a report about inclusion and integration. What the reporter said was the the only groups of kids in high school who were fully integrated were the brainy-type nerds and the special needs kids. The conclusion was that this development was not good for integration because it made integration look like something only "outcasts" do. So, is it only when your natural peer group -- white, AA, Latino, girls, jocks, etc. -- will not accept you, then it's time to find others who have your flaws -- that is, if you consider being smart or autistic or unable to hear a flaw. This sets my mind a whirl.


Is it that only when we do not fit our natural, maybe biological is a better word, groups, do we venture to find those who are like minded? My father always boasted that when he played football in high school, he had a lot of AA friends, but when he became an adult, he did not retain those friendships. Had he outgrown -- that is, stopped playing intense football -- his need for those friends? My parents were aghast when I danced with an AA boy in a show in high school, and I was very pleased to be dancing with a great dancer. Was it just my desire to have a good partner in something that I was so interested in that led me to accept him as a partner? Was that a part of it? And it is one thing to talk about the "easy" differences -- race, religion, etc. What of the subtle difference? The very cool girl in 10th grade who was assigned to be my lab partner in bio who got to be a friend of mine -- Did we find common ground only or especially because of that frog muscle?


How is that translated to a grammar school where the four major groups of students get further and further apart as they go up in grades?


I care. I care so much.