Day: June 17, 2006

…from last week’s visit to the Chicago Art Institute:

Greyed Rainbow – Jackson Pollock 1953 – I got lost in this painting for about 10 minutes. The amout of emotion spilled onto that large canvas is amazing.

Abstraction – Juan Gris – It’s cool to discover a new artist and I did here with Cubist Juan Gris.

Chicago Stock Exchange – This beautiful room is the original, moved to the museum when a modern facility was constructed in the 1970’s. I stood in the middle of it and tried to imagine what a working day was like there back then. What went on behind the doors? How many lives changed for better or worse right in that room?

Speaking of Leftovers, it’s a CD from the Bottle Rockets, in town tonight for a couple hours of the best rock ever to come out of Festus, MO!!! Hep!

Recently I received a text message from someone at a bar suggesting all I was missing was “priceless.” I guess what the person meant was like one of those MasterCard parodies you see on the web:

• St. Patrick’s Day Hat: $10
• Shots: $200
• Not learning a lesson from ignoring any sense of dignity and making a complete ass of yourself: Priceless

As I sat alone staring at the message glowing brightly on the phone screen, I thought about what I had done while I missed all the fun. Well, I met for about 90 minutes with Kyle’s mom so we could prepare for his school IEP meeting the next morning. I also spent time explaining to Kyle the difference between quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies. Finally, I helped him with his physical therapy. He’s been having trouble lately with his legs and he’s fallen down a couple times. The PT is designed to increase the flexibility and strength in his legs. One that he has particular trouble with is toe raises. He is severely flat-footed and his ankles are collapsing inward, so toe raises are painful for him. I stood in front of him with my hands held up clasping his. “Dude, let’s do them together.” “No, Dad” was the response. “It hurts.” Now if there’s one thing I’m going to accomplish in this life, it’s to help my son progress and to help him maintain his state of happiness. For all his challenges, he is sunshine, and that son is going to keep shining.

In my best “Hanz and Franz” imitation, I extolled, “Oh, don’t be a giiihhhrly-mon… Do your exercises so you’re not all flahhhhby like a giiiihhhhhlllll…” Kyle laughed and extended onto his tip-toes. Several times he wanted to quit, But Hanz and Franz pushed him on. He got it done and had fun doing it. Now THAT was priceless.