In Darius' homework folder, the teacher had placed a form that the parents were supposed to complete about their child. It asked if we were willing to volunteer in the classroom and if there was anything that she should know about Darius that would assist her in teaching him.
I wrote down that he often confuses is "b" "d" and "p" when reading. And Darius insisted that I write that he "loves Star Wars and the Clone Wars."
When he had a Ya-Ya night this summer, my dad let him watch the Star Wars movie where Anakin Skywalker turns into Darth Vader. Of course, it was a giant hit. But it brought about questions of good and evil that Darius just couldn't reconcile in his black-and-white concrete thinking development.
How could somebody choose to be bad?
And not just a little bad. But really choose to do awful things and hurt people and all that.
For the past month, I've answered at least 15 times a week about why Anakin choose to become Darth Vader. That he wants power over love. That he makes the wrong choice. That he wants to rule the world. That he is selfish. That he hurts the people around him. That he doesn't want to be fair, he wants to win. It's never ending. Frankly, I feel like I haven't found the right answer since the kid keeps asking me the same question.
Darius is such a sensitive child. He believes in what is right. He strives for what is fair. He sticks up for his friends. There are times when I can feel that he's trying to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. For him, the right choice is still the easy choice. He hasn't had much temptation in his five years to be anything other than a wonderful child.
On the first day of school, Darius chose a white shirt over the red shirt (the two colors in his school uniform). He told me "I don't want the teacher to think I'm bad. So I'm not going to wear the red shirt."
Darth Vader's light saber is red.
Red is bad.
I tried not to laugh and explained that its not the color that makes someone good or bad, it's the person. And that no matter what he wore, his teacher would know he was a good boy.
He seemed to listen.
But he still wore the white shirt.
I know that the conversation over good and evil will continue. As he gets older, he may be able to abstract that there is good and bad in all of us. And that we choose which path we take. And that even if he wears red, he'll always be a good boy to me.
Yes, that is Darius in his Halloween costume as a Storm Trooper. He now contends that he is Luke Skywalker pretending to be a Storm Trooper. Any guesses on what he's planning for this year?
