How an 11 Year Old Boy Became a Mama

My boss' son became a mama last night for the first and most likely ONLY time he'll be a mama.



Mr. Fluffermcnutters

  A baby wood duckling  followed him home and decided that Mr. JP was his mama. Mr. Fluffermcnutters (as only I call him) waddled along behind JP up a hill, down a hill, up another incline, across a bridge and finally across a busy street. Every time  JP stopped so did Mr. Fluffermcnutters.  Mama Fluffermcnutters was nowhere to be found and Mr. Fluffermcnutters was more than happy to follow JP around.
After some heated discussions on FB and some research on the internet, Mr. Fluffermcnutters was allowed to spend the night in the spare bathroom at the Patzner House where he slept nestled in some towels with a breakfast of mashed bread, cornmeal and water until the Rescue Team could come get him.
See, Mr. Fluffermcnutters will be adopted into another little fowl family that has been rescued but the most amazing thing is that Mr. Fluffermcnutters could end up being raised by a chicken, a goose, or any other bird. These mama birds are very welcoming and accept orphaned babies; they will teach them everything they need to know about being a feathered friend.

These birds don't agonize over what color the newbie is. They don't get on the Internet and write hurtful things to chickens who raise geese or geese who raise ducks. You know what they do? They LOVE and NURTURE and TEACH their new baby. Seems to me that the Triad could learn a little something from Mr. Fluffermcnutters.
Sure, Mr. Fluffermcnutters may never get to build a nest in a swamp but he will learn how to swim, eat, look for grubs and anything else he needs to survive. Maybe he'll even learn to fly South for the winter and get to experience a whole different culture.
My point here is that we all need to take a deep breath and realize that what you look like isn't as important as how you act and who you are. Our culture places too high an importance on color and not enough on culture. There is no reason that Mama Chicken can't learn how to make collard greens, play jazz & blues around the nest or hip hop (with clean lyrics) and encourage her duckling to read stories of her culture's history. Or why Mama Duckling can't learn to celebrate Chinese New Year, serve dinners with chopsticks and educate her baby Swan on her culture. As a whole, we are too scared to ignore the colors that make us different and open ourselves up to new experiences and traditions.
In my house, we try to appreciate all the different cultures that makes our nation unique.

Culture. Not color.