Kung Fu Panda
I love family movie night! This past week, we watched Kung Fu Panda with Adam and Zoe. Since Adam is notorious for scripting movies he loves (and forgetting to talk to the rest of us), we have made some serious rules at our house about watching television. The kids really don’t have a lot of time for it anyway when school is tracked in, and Kevin and I think that’s a good thing. All of this makes family movie night an extra special event for us. Most of the time, it’s the one bit of cinema the kids enjoy all week–a visual feast for my highly visual children. I love the whole experience. For me, it’s not just the movie we choose (and Kevin has instituted a “no Barbie or Disney princesses movie” rule on behalf of the guys in our family), it’s the joy of watching the kids experience it.
As is usually true, Zoe watched Kung Fu Panda with rapt attention punctuated with rapid-fire questions.
“Mom, is that girl tiger bad?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“She’s not very nice. She’s mean to the panda.”
“Well, I think she just has a bad attitude.”
“OH. Well, she needs to stop saying mean things.”
~
“Mom. Is that tiger bad?”
“Yep.”
“Are those rhinoceroses cuh-licemen? Why’s the tiger in jail? What’s that thing on top of him?”
“He’s in prison because he wants to hurt other people. Let’s just watch and see.”
I looked at Zoe’s face and I could tell she was thinking through all of this. Suddenly, the movie had her pondering the difference between a bad attitude and inherent evil.
Adam started the movie wandering. I know Adam well enough to know that he was paying attention, but early on he just wasn’t sure the movie inspired devoted attention. Despite typical stereotypes about individuals with autism, Adam has always had a sharp wit. Even before he had made much progress with expressive language, Kevin and I noticed that he would laugh out loud at appropriate moments. At first, we thought this was just a fluke thing, but then we realized that it happened far too consistently to be random. When Master Shifu discovered Po in the kitchen jamming food into his mouth and mentioned monkey’s hidden cookies, Adam settled into the couch in the crook of Kevin’s arm, suddenly very interested.
As the clip above unfolded and Shifu continued to keep Po from his food, Adam erupted in laughter. I wish I could adequately describe the sound of his laugh to you, because it’s wonderful and contagious. His giggles roll and sound so sweet that you can’t help but smile, and then quickly you find yourself laughing along with him. Adam thought this Kung Fu match over dumplings was absolutely hilarious from start to finish. Meanwhile, Zoe remained unconvinced.
“Mom, why is he doing that? That’s not nice. He’s just hungry. He just wants his food.”
“Well, he’s trying to teach the panda how to fight.”
“Why does he want to fight? Fighting is not nice.”
All this, and I have to admit that I found myself relating to Master Shifu, especially when he pleaded with Master Oogway about the ridiculousness of his situation. “This fat panda cannot be the dragon warrior!” Shifu exclaimed. It wasn’t until Master Oogway encouraged Shifu to have faith that the little red panda started thinking outside the box. I couldn’t help but remember how it was when my two unexpected and truly amazing little wonders came into my life. It seemed unlikely that they would ever be able to have conversations with us, or that I would ever be able to convince Riley to stop lining up all of her toys. Sometimes it still feels like I’ll always be battling Adam’s obsessions. I’ve always felt too small for the task. I’ve had these conversations with God in which I’ve said, “How is this ever going to work? You couldn’t have possibly meant to give these kids to me.” Then in a million different ways, God has told me to have faith. It’s then that I’ll start to think outside the box, to see my kids in a new way and try to figure out what truly motivates them. I know it’s silly, but when Po asked Shifu, “How are you going to turn me into a warrior?!” and Shifu answered finally, “I don’t know,” I found myself thinking, “Been there, thought that.”
