An Early Merry Christmas
I had a great Christmas experience yesterday.
My brother, Temper, and I attended a Catholic Franciscan kindergarten at Poverello of Assisi Preschool.
Lil Caspin
Lil Temper
School Badge
Affectionately known as, PAP the school was located in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County in the city of San Fernando. The school moved “next door” to Sylmar, a neighborhood of Los Angeles City, recently.
Poverello of Assissi
The school has been part of our family for many years, and my Mom volunteered there.
My cousin’s little boy, Nikko, (Mom’s side of the family) attends the same kindergarten at Poverello that Temper and I did, although at the new location. I consider Nikko to be my nephew and I am his Uncle Caspin even though technically he is my second cousin. Nikko and his fifteen classmates received reusable insulated water/juice cups for Christmas. Each cup has an inner sleeve that can be customized with a card insert with art, their names, or really any printed material. Nikko’s mom asked me to print his name card. I was very touched and happy to help the little guy out. My Mom suggested that I do cards for all the kids’ cups. I was honored to do the name cards for all the kids.
Calligraphy Cards
The serendipitous part of this story is that the Franciscan Nuns that ran the school when I attended, and also now, were very big believers in great penmanship.
Academic Awards
They stressed neat writing as a reflection of your character.
My Mom taught me calligraphy. I was very impressed, as a 10 year old, with the style and beauty of the highly stylized script, and I asked her to teach me. She agreed and told me the story of how she learned the skill and art.
My Mom was taking a math class at Van Nuys High School in 1966, and her teacher, Mr. Rukes, wrote the notoriously hard “word problems” on the board using calligraphy and stylized script. She told Mr. Rukes that she was very interested in learning how to do calligraphy. He made a deal: if she got an “A” on the next test he would teach her. She studied hard and got the “A”, and he taught her.
I have practiced and improved my skills through the years and now feel competent enough to share my efforts. The project turned out really well, and the kids loved them.
The Cups
It was a blessing to use this skill I have been nurturing all these years in this warm positive way.
The whole kindergarten attendance, penmanship, calligraphy learning, multi-generational family connection circle is some serious cosmic “what goes around comes around” stuff.
This experience settled on me in a really satisfying way. I felt proud that I was asked, happy to do the work, and rewarded that the kids liked them. It was a transformation of a gift from me to a gift for me. I have always heard that people who give of themselves to others get more from the experience than the people they serve-I think that’s true. I think that transformative experience is the true magic of Christmas.
Love, love
