06-07-2004, 06:13 AM
Shadow,
I'm sorry to hear about that! Your cottage is so clearly a place of comfort, and it's so unsettling when a safe haven like that is disturbed. :(
As far as the stained glass goes, while they can break the individual pieces, they can never take away the hours of experience and enjoyment that went into creating the pieces. I remind my student teachers constantly that "it's the process, not the product, that's important." Most of the hundreds of pages of artwork that kids produce won't last very long, but the skills they develop will last a lifetime. I think that can apply at post-preschool levels as well. Losing the pieces of stained glass is heartbreaking, but nobody can take the experience away. In the long run, that's probably the more valuable.
While I've never experienced that degree of vandalism, I have found that situations like that can bring neighbors together. Somebody went down our street spraypainting cars a few years ago. The police woke us up, and we found that the paint was a bit wet, and came off fairly easily (hooray for Oregon rain!). Those of us who were home (it was a holiday weekend) came out and cleaned our own cars. After we went inside, a few of us thought better of it and came back outside to clean the remaining cars. That experience helped to strengthen the sense of community that I feel in this neighborhood, and it's one of the reasons that I enjoy living here.
While the specific situations are different, I hope that you are able to find some tibidts of kindness in the aftermath that will add at least a bit of a silver lining to the experience.
I'm sorry to hear about that! Your cottage is so clearly a place of comfort, and it's so unsettling when a safe haven like that is disturbed. :(
As far as the stained glass goes, while they can break the individual pieces, they can never take away the hours of experience and enjoyment that went into creating the pieces. I remind my student teachers constantly that "it's the process, not the product, that's important." Most of the hundreds of pages of artwork that kids produce won't last very long, but the skills they develop will last a lifetime. I think that can apply at post-preschool levels as well. Losing the pieces of stained glass is heartbreaking, but nobody can take the experience away. In the long run, that's probably the more valuable.
While I've never experienced that degree of vandalism, I have found that situations like that can bring neighbors together. Somebody went down our street spraypainting cars a few years ago. The police woke us up, and we found that the paint was a bit wet, and came off fairly easily (hooray for Oregon rain!). Those of us who were home (it was a holiday weekend) came out and cleaned our own cars. After we went inside, a few of us thought better of it and came back outside to clean the remaining cars. That experience helped to strengthen the sense of community that I feel in this neighborhood, and it's one of the reasons that I enjoy living here.
While the specific situations are different, I hope that you are able to find some tibidts of kindness in the aftermath that will add at least a bit of a silver lining to the experience.
Why can't we all just get along
--Pete
--Pete