GBE2 Challenge: Image of the Money Tree

I would like to thank my blogging group. Because of them, my younger son has been motivated to put down his electronics and attempt some gardening. You see, the challenge this week was to write about the image below. I won't lie, it has given me a mild case of writer's block. After all, with the cost of caring for a person with autism rising to more than $3 million over the course of that person's lifetime, one can see where a money tree would come in handy. But how to make this point properly?

So, I sat, staring at the image and ignoring my kids for as long as I could, when in walked my younger son.

"Hey!" he cried accusingly. "You always say that money doesn't grow on trees!"

"It doesn't" I answered.

"Well, then why is there a picture of one there?" he asked, pointing to the evidence of his argument.

"Somebody created it." Give me a break kid. "It's not real."

"Well, then how would they know to draw it if they haven't heard you say it?" he probed.

"I'm not the only one who says it. Everyone says it." I countered.

"Well," he persisted, "if enough people say it, there has to be some truth to it! I bet it works! I'm going to try it!" And with that, he ran out of the room.

If only it were that simple. Oh, to go back to being eight years old and carrying the world in the palm of your hand!

"Mom!" he shouted from the other room. "Do you think paper or coins would grow faster?"

"Experiment." I said, making a mental note to review the life cycle of a plant with him again since he obviously did not listen to that homeschooling lesson this past spring. Who was I to squash his quest for knowledge? This particular project reminded me much like the book "The Carrot Seed" by Ruth Krauss.

In "The Carrot Seed," a little boy planted a carrot seed and tended to it daily. Everyone told him it wouldn't grow, but he didn't listen. He stayed true to his conviction, and, in the end, the carrot grew to be a product beyond anyone's wildest dreams!

Who was I to tell my son that his plan was rubbish? Sure, it defied logic, but...wouldn't it be great if he actually grew a money tree?!! What if those coins actually did sprout?! WHAT IF??!!

Well, I'd be selfish, that's what. After exercising property rights over that tree and placing my son on a strict allowance, I would garden like nobody's business! I'd try to divide it and grow a forest of them.

You see, I'm a mother that would pay anything so that her nearly-ten-year-old could learn to talk.

I would buy the best medical care possible so that I wouldn't have to hear him cry another day in his life.

A sensory gym would be great in this house, thank you, and, while I'm at it, a beefed up security system would be great because our older son just won't stop playing in the windows.

Both children need additional occupational and physical therapies. Social skills are in desperate need of some counseling.

Our older son could use some help learning daily living skills, and if anyone could help the kids to keep their clothes on their bodies on a more regular basis, by golly gosh, I'd be giddy!

Compression vests, weighted vests, bouncing balls, chew tubes, platform swings, hammock swings, bench swings, crash pads, fidget toys, special diets, listening therapies, language tapes, ear plugs, head phones, electronics, sophisticated toys, baby toys, failed toys, investments in perseverative interests...

My older son just blew through one of his (tiny) loaves of gluten free bread--in one sitting. It cost nearly six dollars. That is almost the price of the Target t-shirt that I'm wearing.

I will openly admit that we spend more on groceries to fit the gastric needs of our kids than we do on our mortgage each month.

Yes, that money tree would come in handy in this house.

And, then to think: Autism affects roughly one in every 100 children. Those money trees sure could come in handy to a good many households right about now.

After selfishly using my money tree for my kids, if I could pluck but one sapling from my forest and grow another field of money trees, it would be my hope that at some point in the future, research would find an answer and a cure so that children and their families would no longer have to suffer at the hands of autism.

:) All this from my son, who decided that he could grow his own money tree.