Day 40. (bubbling.)

Have you ever noticed
that everyone is good at something?
You, too.
Maybe you don't even know?
Maybe
RIGHT NOW
you are a crazy contortionist, or a salacious singer
--maybe one day these things will save your life.
Me?
I am insanely gifted in the art of......

Multiple choice.
I can bubble like no other.
Me and my number two pencil are number one.
You better believe I can process of eliminate any obstacle.
I was thinking about this the other day because
I have this friend, and she gets to thinking these tests are magic.
She gets to thinking
they can tell you how smart you are, compared statistically to every other kid
who has ever bubbled anything.
She gets down sometimes, because
somehow, she has accumulated the belief that
these tests make it possible to determine your future.
She has this crazy idea
that these tests test knowledge, in the form of
bubbles.
It does sound pretty cool.
Hey kid-- you wanna bubble?
I'd buy that. Sounds like
hot tubs, or Powerpuff girls, or maybe
soap bubbles, the kind your sister teaches you to blow with your hands,
interlaced fingers learning to
seal off summer
in a perfect sphere for a few mesmerizing
seconds.

But here's the thing--
None of choices A though E involve the beautiful messes of soap bubbles or the chaos of life.
They say life is chaos like it's a bad thing but
after seven years of scantrons
I can tell you that chaos
is what makes kaleidoscopes enchanting
and teaches us that reality is ambiguous and dramatic and
controversial.

And somehow, we've gotten to this point where kindergartners get to practice for
first grade exams and you can choose to be
a motivated bubbling robot in classes that teach to a test
or you can duck flying leftovers and watch teachers trying desperately
not to be listened to, but to be
heard.

Why settle for these choices?
It's our curiosity, our enthusiasm, our optimism
Our minds
being bubbled in.

Bubbling is about finding the least bad answer but
I want a good one so
I guess I'll have to write it
myself.