We Support the Union (no not that Union)

For now you know one of the greatest principles of success; if you persist long enough you will win.
-- Og Mandino
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At risk of alienating some of my less than tens of readers, I feel I have to make an admission:

I like to watch professional soccer.  Yes, its true.

About 3 years ago, I watched the Philadelphia Union play their first ever game at the newly constructed PPL Park on the Delaware River in Chester, PA.  I was not a huge soccer fan prior to that point, but there was something about being there live that was infectious.  I think it was, in soccer parlance, the Supporters Section.  At PPL Park there is a section, called the "River End" that is restricted to the Union "supporters," called the Sons of Ben.  You can't sit in that section unless you are a member of the Sons of Ben - and you really can't sit in that section unless you are prepared to stand, sing, and listen to the beat of a drum for the entire game.  Even for a casual observer, the atmosphere is truly amazing.  Here is a video and the lyrics to one of my favorite, pretty standard Sons of Ben chants.

                          We love ya
                          We love ya
                          We love ya
              And where you go we'll follow
                         We'll follow
                         We'll follow
              'Cause we support the Union
                         The Union
                         The Union
             And that's the way we like it
                          We like it
                          We like it
          Oh-oh-oh-oh-ooooooooooooooh
          Oh-oh oh-oh-ooooooooooooooh


Okay, so what does this have to do with Autism and/or the Little Man?

Um, I forget.  I wrote Union for the letter U a couple of weeks ago and don't remember why.

I kid you.  But, I did warn you yesterday that today's post would be crappy.

Long story short, did you ever see the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit?  In the movie, the animated Roger Rabbit has a compulsion.  If someone knocks the old tune of "Shave and a haircut"  the Rabbit must, must, must, respond singing "two, bits...."  Even if the Rabbit is supposed to be hidden and quiet, he can't resist the urge to yell "two, bits...." to complete the tune and put himself in danger.

I often notice that our Little Man has a similar quality.  He is somewhat obsessive compulsive and hates having anything left incomplete.  If you start singing, Row, Row, Row Your Boat, he will make sure you sing it to the end.  This is even true if the song drives him crazy.

Cue the Union song from above.  So I played the video above for my kids one night and we had a great time all singing it together.  As you can imagine, the novelty quickly wore off and the attitude of the kids went quickly from "Dad, you're so cool" to "Dad, stop be so annoying!"

But, if you can't annoy your kids, who can you annoy?

So, I know the Little Man (LM) must finish the song once it starts, no matter how annoyed he is, so our version of the song goes a little like this:

ME:    We love ya, We love ya, We love ya
LM:    (yelling)  All Done!
(Pause)
LM:   And where you go we'll follow
ME:   We'll follow; we;ll follow
LM:   (yelling)  All Done!
(Pause)
LM:   'Cause we support the Union...


I try not to torture him TOO much!