Wednesday Rebellions

For some reason, I had a hard time with Blogger yesterday and couldn't post. This ruined my clever plan of posting every day this week, each post with its own alliterative Day-of-the-Week title. Although come to think of it, I'm not sure what I would have done with Tuesday ... Tuesday Tidbits? I don't think so.

I'm sorry I couldn't log on, because I wanted to direct you to Our Red House . Kate hosted a Make it From Scratch Blog Carnival yesterday, and I participated. You can still go and check out all the very cool stuff that people contributed. I sent in my banana pudding recipe, as it is officially Banana Pudding season.

Heather blogged the other day at Pneuma about participating in the World Wide Knit in Public day on Saturday, and how she's usually not a joiner, but she was going go head and get on the public knitting bandwagon, committed knitter that she is. I completely related. I am all for community efforts and parades and Maypole wrappings and other group events, but for most of my life, I've been content to watch. I'm by nature an observer, a little shy, a little worried about appearing goofy in public.

As I get older, though, the fear of public goofiness appears to be fading somewhat. I guess after you've given birth in front of a team of doctors, all your private loveliness exposed to complete strangers, what's left to fear?

Plus, when you have kids, the gig is up. You're waving your hands around in Mommy 'n' Me classes pretending to be a goose flying south for the winter, you're hopping up and down to the Wiggles just like Dorothy the Dinosaur, you're chasing naked toddlers across the playground pleading with them to come back to mommy. In short, for the sake of the children, you forget about personal dignity.

One thing I used to never do? Clap along in public to music. I'd go see bands and dance around like crazy, but stand at a show or a concert and clap in rhythm with everyone else? For some reason, I just couldn't do it. I do not come from a family of public clap-alongers. We are a reserved people.

But when I had children, that changed, and for one reason: I want my children to be people who can have fun in public, clapping, wrapping the Maypole in ribbons, waving their hands in the air, whatever the spirit moves them to do. So now I clap along. I wave my hands in the air. When the singer on the stage yells out, "Everybody sing!" I sing.

And when Kate over at Our Red House hosts a Blog Along, I blog along. I participate. It's possible that people will make fun of my banana pudding. They will read my banana pudding post and think I'm goofy and too dumb for words. That's okay. I've given birth without an epidural and there's nothing anyone can do to hurt me now.