Waiting for the fat lady to sing

Hey there, it's Bill. Today is Wednesday....really the first day that I did not have anything that I HAD to do. That was nice. All of the 'must' are done, the 'gotta s' are all taken care of.
My time at the Youth Intervention Center really goes beyond words. At times, I was allowed a glimpse into the lives of the kids there, that was truly remarkable. It is always a surprise to me when ever I am in a teaching situation, just what I am allowed to learn. Things go beyond the "lessons " that I plan. We have talks about censorship, freedom, responsibility....and yes, there is even some talk about art as well. Lessons that I learn are almost always about leaving my ego and remembering that it is not about me. There where times when the mural we were working on went through good and bad times. Worse, there were times when good parts of the mural started heading to the bad. Letting go of my ego and letting a kid who was having a good time painting like I ask him....not saying "no not there.....that is the good part!!!!!" ....that was hard. I really want all involved to say ..."Bill is a genius, no wonder we paid big bucks for him to be here." Well that or something similar. My instinct is to jump in and make this picture that we are working on SO very good that all are dazzled. That is not ; nor should it ever be the project. It has to be the quality of the experience for the students. To me that is the hard part....to remember it really is not about me. That we did accomplish. At some point soon, there will be pictures posted here of the mural...I hope you will take time to look at that.
Huge thanks must go out to all that were involved. To Bert and Cindy...you are amazing women...smart, capable, and hardworking. Thanks Bert for getting it all started and being there all the way. Cindy did as much as I did every day of this program and the kids really loved this wacky woman who ranted about brain parts to them. We certainly could not have done without Jeremy and Ann our young volunteers. Thanks to them for a lot of work and giving us gray hairs and element of "cool". Thanks to Bryan and all of the staff of the Youth intervention Center. I have never worked with a staff at that kind of center who were as involved and as welcoming. There is more ...more thanks to be given and more activity to tell about, more tours with Jean ...but right now there are more cocktails to be taken care of. BILL