A Stomach Bug and The Team in Red

I was going to start out by saying, "poor Ben - he didn't get to watch the team in red with his dad last night." In hindsight, watching The Lifetime Channel with Mom and Sissy was more beneficial to Ben than observing the carnage of the team in red playing in Phoenix last night.

Meanwhile Dad was suffering his own beating by the retrovirus that spent the night in his intestines. For every Gator chomp heard during the game another was occurring in the innards of my intestinal desert.

The game wrap-up: Ohio State and Bennie were scattered, smothered, and covered before midnight last night. By the way, this is NOT a New Years diet I recommend.

Needless to say Ben hasn't been too happy with me today. Having to hide away in the upstairs bonus room racing back and forth between the boob-tube and the poop-shute was neither our choice for the last college bowl game of the year. I last saw our alarm clock at 4:00 this morning on my way back to bed from one last homage to The Porcelain Prince. I also wanted to make sure I didn't pass along (pun not intended) the stomach bug to the rest of the gang so by late this afternoon Ben had plenty to vent about.

Fortunately one of the charming things about exceptional children is their ability to forgive and forget. It's another life lesson that we've all been taught but never really follow through with. In all honesty I realize that in many cases the child might not have the ability to recall things from memory like most of us. But time and again Ben has proven to us what a remarkable memory he has. I've come to believe that it boils down to the fact that Ben and kids like him has a completely different agenda than the rest of us.

Ben has no need to climb to the top of the ladder. He has no need to put another individual down for his personal gain or social standing. Ben has no need to gossip about a friend so that he can be the most popular in his class. Ben sees no difference in skin color, religion, creed, or even in the type you clothes you are wearing. He cares about two things: giving and receiving love unconditionally.

So if you'll pardon me, I'm gonna go get me some unconditional love.