Ah, KFOG's listener appreciation party, "KaBOOM!" Is it fun to pack into a space the size of a couple of city blocks with 50 thousand people and watch fireworks choreographed to hit rock and roll?Absolutely.
Last year was good, this year was different. Still good. We thought we would miss it, since I'm at permaculture class, and Xena was working. But at nearly the last minute, I found I had time to keep this tradition. We got there just in time for the show. Next year we'll aim for arriving early enough to listen to the free concert, too.
I'm not sure, but I think that holding on to our family traditions even as we are place-less helps cement us together. It would have been very easy to twiddle away my timing opportunity and go with the plan of missing it, but as soon as I voiced the possibility of getting there, everyone jumped to go. Is this what makes family? Holding these special times? Will this become the memory, "Hey Dad, remember that one year, before we bought the house and we were homeless, and you still got us over to KaBOOM? Yeah, good times. Good times."
I'm finding that in conversations with people who have been around the last month, no one really got what that my life was completely chaotic. No one. Except Xena, who was of course living through it. I've had the experience several times now, of people saying "Oh my! I had no idea what you and your family have been going through!" Are we really good actors? Did we keep just enough of our family rituals that we look like we're making it?
Both kids took the standardized tests while we were shuffling about. They consistently score in the 99th percentiles, so it'll be fascinating to see how impacted their poor little brains were during all this.
The permacultural principle that I've followed through all this? "Respond creatively to change."
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