Clinton Township Newsletter

3 n o v e m b e r 2 0 2 3 –Julie Flynn As I write this (in early October) I'm shocked by the barbaric terrorist attacks on Israel and the ensuing war, as well as the ongoing war in Ukraine. Raised by parents who felt that all people are generally benign, I'm always dismayed by the potential for cruelty that human beings have towards one another, and how some of them have no compunction about acting that out. It's unfathomable to me. However... I was born on an army base in a foreign country during wartime, and I grew up in Jacksonville, a town with multiple military bases. I thought that the sonic boom from the Navy jets which flew overhead several times a day, every day while I played in the backyard, was normal (and, come to think of it, might account for some of my hearing loss. Our parents tried to shield us from war but still it steeped into our lives, like the slurry of mud seeping into the dank cellar of an antique home after a fierce storm. One of my classmates father was a POW; we children weren't able to understand why he couldn't come home and be with his family. We wore black "POWs Never Have a Nice Day" sweatshirts and POW i.d. bracelets engraved with the name, rank, and loss date of American servicemen captured or missing during the Vietnam War. When Senator John McCain was finally released from captivity, he returned to Jacksonville with some of those men, as well as my classmate's father. We grew up playing war all over the neighborhood, which consisted of a lot of running around, pointing our fingers at one another and yelling "BAM", and then arguing about who was shot and who wasn't. Debates would ensue: difficult to decide the victor, as it was all imaginary. There was a lot of riding around quickly on bikes and hiding behind trees. For some reason, it was often the boys versus the girls, a child's earliest version of "the other." Collecting "ammo" was often paramount, the large nuts that, when pelted hard at the body or head by some strong boy, could hurt like the dickens, sometimes resulting in tears (mine) which would bring about an instant apology from said boy. I'm thinking those nuts were from a black-walnut tree – I could tell you for sure if you threw some at me. Memorably, once my neighbor across the street and I hoisted our ten-year-old selves from the massive (to us, at least) air-conditioning unit on the side of their house up onto the roof of the neighbor's ranch-style home, where we rained ammo down at the boys; it took them a while to figure out from whence the onslaught came. Now fully adult, sometimes I think that my generation was basically feral. According to Unicef*, "When children are dealing with complex emotional issues, it often shows up in their play... Play gives them a way to express things they are struggling with that they don't yet have the words to fully explain. By recreating painful events repeatedly through imaginative play, little ones are trying to understand the impact of what has happened." My hope for this month of Thanksgiving is that humankind will somehow, someday achieve peace, and future children won't know the reality of war. As a wise (but-conflicted) man once wrote, "Imagine all the people, Sharing all the world, You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one, I hope someday you'll join us And the world will live as one." *www.unicef.org/parenting/child-development/how-play-strengthens-your-childs-mental-health DAYS TO KEEP IN MIND Wed Nov 1 National Stress Awareness Day Wed Nov 1 All Saints' Day Thurs Nov 2 National Men Make Dinner Day(!) Thurs Nov 2 All Souls' Day Sun Nov 5 Daylight Saving Time Ends Sun Nov 5 New York City Marathon Wed Nov 8 National STEM/STEAM Day Fri Nov 10 Marine Corps Birthday Sat Nov 11 Veterans Day Mon Nov 13 Sadie Hawkins Day Mon Nov 13 Diwali Thurs Nov 16 Great American Smokeout Thurs Nov 23 Thanksgiving Day Fri Nov 24 Black Friday Fri Nov 24 American Indian Heritage Day Sat Nov 25 Small Business Saturday Tues Nov 28 Giving Tuesday Thurs Nov 30 National Personal Space Day from Carol Beder's C U S T O M PA I N T F I N I S H Transformations for Your Cabinetry & Furniture • D E S I G N 9 0 8 . 8 3 2 . 6 0 3 2 T E W K S B U R Y

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