Freedom And All Her Perks

I've spent more time either skating or watching skating of late than I have in many years. By watching skating I mean I attend the skating events held at the rink across the street from the kids school. They require a certain number of parents to tie skates and stand around looking like they actually are concerned for the kids welfare and are therefore keeping track of them. They do this once a week, which translates into 3/4 of the day for me since I have 3 at that school.

I had to laugh last week when young Freedom was being reprimanded by the teacher for knocking down another student. She just shrugged her shoulders and skated on. Now names have been becoming very unusual in the last few years and I kind of thought that Freedom was an odd name to choose for a child. Kind of Hollywood, like choosing Apple, or Moon Unit or other such bizzare choices. As it turns out, Freedom was a pretty good fit for this kid.

The next pass around the rink Freedom skated like a roller derby queen at break neck speed and took down a fellow student yet again. The perplexed teacher pulled her aside again and asked why she was being so inconsiderate of other skaters. Freedom simply replied,
"That's how I stop. I don't know how to stop any other way."
"But you'll hurt the other children. You have to slow down and learn how to stop without using them as a cushion." the teacher instructed.

Now, I didn't actually see what happened next, but a small group had gathered around a hurt child sitting wailing on the ice with a guilty looking Freedom standing at her side telling the teacher,
"I didn't do it!"

I guess with a name like Freedom, you are free to do pretty much anything you want.