Toilet Training by Fantasy

This morning I discovered a good way to motivate Juancho, my two-and-a-half year old kid, to use the toilet when making pooh pooh. In the past, we've done everything to make sure he goes to the potty before he drops his morning bombs. We talked to him, cajoled him, shouted at him, even threatened him with castration. My wife found a less violent way by reading him a book about Dori, the good boy who goes to the potty. It worked for a while but he soon went back to his old habit of doing it anywhere.

This morning was a revelation. He woke me up and asked me to read him a book. Since I haven't put on my contact lenses yet, I couldn't possibly read him a book so I told him I would just tell him a story. He engagingly obliged. Unfortunately, my mind was blank. I waited for spontaneous inspiration to set in until I thought of the working title: Juancho Goes to the Moon.

The title is the story. Thus, I knew then that the plot is simple. He rides a rocket, goes to the moon, and goes back. To improve upon it, I knew I had to render a little flourish, put on a little detail on the rocket ride, set him up with an alien and then bring him back to earth. The end. But where do I start? Blank. Then it popped: the toilet.

So my introduction goes: Juancho stepped into the toilet and made wee wee and then made pooh pooh and then began putting on his astronaut gear, his astronaut boots, his astronaut gloves, and then he stepped into the rocket and the announcer said Juancho is about to depart and began counting 10, 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1, 0 blast off!

Okay so off went Juancho. Juancho held on to the steering wheel and pushed buttons here and there and then he marveled at the sky. Then Juanco's rocket circled the moon, once , twice, then landed softly on the surface and then Juancho got out of the rocket, got some soil samples, hopped and hopped, and then he met Eeek Eeek the alien who had nothing to say but eek eek. So, Juancho went back to the rocket and went back to earth. The end.

Okay, I know that's going to get a sure F in any class on creative writing. But Juancho liked it. He asked for another story. So I said okay the next story is Juancho Goes Back to the Moon -- same plot, same ending and same beginning. I guess he liked the part on riding the rocket so much since he didn't mind. Juancho goes to the toilet, makes wee wee and pooh pooh and puts on his astronaut suit, astronaut gloves, astronauts boots etc. Then he lands on the moon and talks to Eeek Eeek who still had nothing to say but eek eek. So he said don't you have anything to say but eek eeek? Then Eeek Eeek answered "of course.". So Juancho goes back to earth because he can't talk to Eeek Eeek. The End

Juancho laughed and asked for another story. So I said okay Juancho Goes to the Moon part III. Just then he stood up and said, "Tatay I'm going to the potty and make pooh pooh and go to the moon afterwards." It was that easy. No threats to cut off his birdie. Quickly, I jumped out of bed and brought him to the potty.

So what do you think? I hope it works again tomorrow when Juancho Goes to the Moon Part IV.

Ways to Help Avoid a Clash Between the West and Islam
World Peace Day Message Outlines Strategies

A friend sent us through email the text of the above article which summarizes the Pope's World Peace Day Message for Jan. 2001
in which Pope John Paul II addressed the need to seek cooperation between cultures. In the text titled "Dialogue between cultures for a civilization of love and peace," the Pope recognized how difficult it is to maintain peace between people who have to live together, while coming from differing cultures. The message also spoke of the possibility of dangers due to migration leading to many people from different cultures and civilizations living close together and offers a number of pointers to help avoid conflicts between cultures.
The full text is found here. This made us wonder if we had listened hard enough to this message and lived it, the cultural conflicts that we are experiencing today could have been lessened.