The downstairs area of my house where my work desk is has a small window that overlooks the street. The window faces the East so when I’m at my desk early in the morning (which I usually am, by 5:30 or 6:00am), I can watch the sun rise and streak the sky as I rub my eyes and settle down to work. It is an incredibly inspiring morning atmosphere. That is, until about 7:45 am. This is the time that the elementary-aged children in the neighborhood start to gather on the sidewalk outside my home to catch the school bus…
Most of the dozen or so children that gather giggle and chat comfortably with one another as they line up for the impending arrival of the bus. There is one child, however, who begins yelling the moment he comes out his own front door down the street and yells and screams all the way down the walk, continuing even as he reaches the line of other children. If I am busy at my work and don’t notice the other children congregating, my ears tell me that it is nearly 8:00.
I have mixed feelings about the screaming child. I live in a pretty compact neighborhood with great diversity in terms of age and ethnic background, so I wonder if some of my other neighbors wake to the shouts on weekday mornings (I imagine babies crying, seniors clutching their chests as they jolt awake). I also imagine the child’s mother–whom I have never seen–collapsing at her kitchen table when the child is finally released through the front door, breathing a sigh at the sudden peace and quiet. Some mornings, I feel guilty about the annoyance I feel at being jarred from a beautiful, evolving morning by the shouts and screams–while on other mornings I remind myself that the child is outside after all, and it is probably a good thing that he lets out all that noise and energy before having to settle into a classroom.
Some mornings I acknowledge that I am having an entirely personal reaction to the hollering outside my window, wishing I could prolong the quiet peacefulness of the morning just a little longer, while on others I consider writing a “letter to the editor” of our local paper sharing my concerns over “school bus stop etiquette.” Mostly, I find myself looking forward to weekends, holidays and summer break…