The Latest "Story"
As his schedule affords more flexibility than mine, Michael is often "out and about" with Cookie in tow. Together they are a beautiful picture - a contrast in size, and shape, and color. He's 6'1", a soft, cuddly, shaved-headed dark man with skin the color of a good cup of dark roast coffee. Cookie is 23 pounds of porcelin cherub doll with fluffy strawberry blonde hair and a turned up tiny nose. Together, you can tell they are very much in love as father and daughter. But to the unaware, their father-daughter relationship might be, well...confusing.Earlier this week, Michael returned with Cookie to the pediatrician for some Ominicef to treat the ear infection that will not go away (while I was at work). While waiting for her Rx in the pharmacy, Michael and Cookie encountered a woman and her young son, and Cookie and the little boy took to playing together while Michael and the nice woman chatted. After a spell, the woman began to look confused, and got quiet and turned to Michael and asked with a wrinkled up brow, "Is she yours?" Michael, always the polite one of the two of us, answered that yes, she is his and that he and his wife were adopting her from foster care. "Aaaaaah", the woman replied, looking as it things suddenly fit. But then, according to Michael, the woman looked somehow extremely puzzled yet again, and silence fell between them. She then turned to Michael again, and with a deliberate strong whisper, asked, "Is your wife...is she...is she...black?"
(This is the point in his recounting the story to me that I almost peed my pants.)
"No", he replied, "She's white."
The woman seemed astonished at the new image of family that whirled around in her brain. Rocks the mental images, doesn't it?
I like the differences that the three of us offer. I like the image of a black man caring for his baby daughter - we need more of these - from men of every color. I like that we are all separate and distinct as individuals, yet very united as a family. There have been challenges, and there have been looks, but so far people seem to have enjoyed having their expectations shifted, and their realities altered. It's good for the soul, don'tcha think?
Labels: race
posted by No Longer In Crisis @ 1/05/2007 02:23:00 PM
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