So, Jerry -- are you submitting this to Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen? Chicken Soup for the Folkies' Soul?

All seriousness aside, this *is* a beautiful thread. I've mentioned the topic to a couple of friends, and the moms have mostly automatically said, "giving birth to my kid/s". So my initial response is not all that unusual.

Other wonderful things I'm proud of having done were mostly done last year while I was a substitute teacher for the local county public school system. I worked primarily with "Special Needs" populations and I know I made a difference for a number of kids. Kids I'd seen only for an afternoon remembered me weeks, even months later and greeted me cheerfully.

One kid in the local high school for "emotionally disturbed" kids, was VERY, VERY angry one afternoon and on the verge of fleeing and/or harming someone. The psychologist talked him down and I very calmly went and got the work he needed to do and brought it to him in spite of the abusive string of angry words he had recently hurled in my general direction. He was so astonished that I could remain calm and continue to treat him with dignity and respect that our interactions from then on were completely changed.

I feel really good about being able to look at "Special Ed Kids" and see them first and foremost as people -- unfortunately this seems to be outside the experience of many of them and yet it means so very much. I remain amazed at how just a tiny dose of humanity can heal so many wounds...

Peace,

JudyO