posted April 08, 2005 02:04 PM         

Where do the Mermaids Stand? By Robert Fulghum

Giants, Wizards and Dwarfs was the game to play
Being left in charge of about 80 children 7 to 10 years old while their parents were off doing parenty thing, I mustered my troops in the church social hall and explained the game. It’s a large-scale version of Rock, Paper and Scissors and involves some intellectual decision making. But the real purpose of the game is to make a lot of noise and run around chasing people until nobody knows which side you are on or who won.

Organizing a roomful of wired up grade-schoolers into two teams, explaining the rudiments fo th game, achieving consensus on group identity– all of this is no mean accomplishment, but we didi it with a right good will and were ready to go.

The excitement of the chase had reached a critical mass. I yelled out: “You have to decide now which you are—a GIANT, a WIZARD or a DWARF!”

While the groups huddled in frenzied, whispered consultation, a tug cam at my pant leg. A small child stand there looking up and ask in a small concerned voice, “Where do the Mermaids stand?”
Where do the Mermaids stand?

A very long pause. A very long pause. “Where do the Mermaids stand?” says I.

“Yes. You see, I am a Mermaid.”
‘There are no such things as Mermaids.”
“Oh yes there is, I am one!”
She did not relate to being a Giant, a Wizard or a Dwarf. She knew her category, Mermaid, and was not about to leave the game and go over and stand against the wall where a lose would stand. She intended to participate, wherever Mermaids fit into the scheme of things, without giving up dignity or identity. She took it for granted that there was a place for Mermaids and that I woudl know just where.

Well, where do the Mermaids stand? All the Mermaids—all those who are different, who do not fit the norm, and who do not accept the available boxes and pigeonholes?

Answer that question and you can build a school, a nation or a world on it.

What was my answer at the moment? Every once in a while I say the right thing. “The Mermaid stands right here by the King of the Sea!” (Yes, right here by the King’s Fool, I thought to myself.)

So we stood there hand in hand, reviewing the troops of Wizards and Giants and Dwarfs as the rolled by in wild disarray.

posted April 11, 2005 03:17 PM         

You make me want to go the beach and let the waves rush over me.