Do you see what I see?

I like the movie the Sound of Music. I love to sing. I enjoy the story line. Obviously, I own the movie. So, I put it on one day for my daughter to enjoy. Loved it!! She was mesmerized by the songs and there are lots of them. She enjoyed the scene with the children putting on a puppet show. She started signing along so my sister googled to locate the words to “I have confidence in me”. That’s Maria’s song on her way to the Von Trapp’s home.

Those of us who’ve seen the movie remember favorite songs, maybe even a scene or two. Do you know why a child of 18 months would need a hooded towel to watch the opening scene? I certainly didn’t. Took me long enough to figure out what she wanted…remember there is no dynamic speech coming…no quasi sentences. Just pointing and urgency (and some frustration).

I didn’t see what she was seeing. She was probably thinking “Do you see what I see?” The opening scene of the movie features the sound of music coming from a convent. And, if you pay close attention, you will see that the scene focuses on the nuns, in their habits, kneeling in prayer. Ah-ha, says the idiot mother. Now I see what she sees. She needs the hooded towel to emulate the nuns in the opening scene!

It continued like this throughout the movie. Each time she would watch, I would discover some new detail that I’d missed over the years. Professional colleagues who know me know that I have an eye for detail but this was different. She was seeing things that I simply could not. She saw the details that made the fabric of the movie. Do you remember when Maria holds on to the curtain in her room as she sings during the rainstorm? Do you know the cues in the music or the son that tell you when to step up on the bench outside while Liesl and Rolf sing the song “I am 16 going on 17”? That’s what I mean.  We see the movie in its totality. She was seeing, receiving, experiencing the movie with an eye that was unfamiliar to me.

Discovery: my role is to figure out how she sees, processes, and experiences the universe. If I can understand how her mind processes the input, I might be better able to translate other aspects of life in ways that she can better understand.

Sometimes, you have to listen to the silence or interpret the confusion on their faces as they try to say to you “Do you see what I see?”