- 9/1/2008 10:00:00 PMWe're StupidMichael came down stairs this morning with poopy underwear again. Not sure if I mentioned this before but this is an on-going struggle with him. It's not necessarily that he doesn't do a good job cleaning himself. Often times he chooses to not clean himself at all.
The dirty underwear, combined with his continuing to walk hunched over like an elderly man trying to milk a moving cow led to a very lengthy discussion of his behavior. During the discussion, something interesting came out.
One of the things that puzzles me the most is Michael's continued attempts to pull the wool over our eyes. He is always attempting to deceive about something. Often times it is the same things repeatedly. Hair, teeth, hunger, whether he is too warm or cold or comfortable, if is room is clean, if he did his chores, what he or someone else said during a conversation, lurking, staring, eavesdropping... We continue to confront him on these things and I asked him, "You keep trying to trick and deceive me and I keep catching you. Do you think I am, stupid?"
"Yes", he responded.
Now keep in mind that there was no misunderstanding here. Michael fully understood what I was saying to him and what I asked him. I followed with, "Why do you think that?"
"Because you don't know what I'm doing when you can't see me", he answered. That made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
Peggy continued, "Do you think all American's are stupid?"
"Some of them", he said.
"Why?" Peggy asked.
Michael really couldn't answer that. He mostly just stood there blurting out half sentences and ideas that had nothing to do with what we were taking about. Perhaps in his twisted mind, his answers made sense.
We reminded him of his current condition and compared that to what he was when he went and got him. We reminded him of how his own people took care of him. We retold the story of how people within the Russian Lighthouse helped to get him out of Russia and save him from a life of hell.
Then we asked him again, "who is stupid?"
He says, "Russia" but it is not with a very convincing voice. Michael has been indoctrinated to believe that Russia, Russian people, and anything that has to do with it or them is always the first, best, biggest, and greatest. When faced with undeniable truth, when there is no other obvious answer but the one presented, when there is no other conclusion but the one staring you directly in the face, Michael typically gives one of the following responses:
- change the subject or ask a question regarding an unrelated topic
- stare at you like a deer in the headlights
- repeat exactly what you say back to you
It is times like these when banging your head on a brick wall seems like it could be a good idea.
