Why is this called Sizzle Bop?

The title for this site was an inspiration from my much loved but high energy (and high maintenance) son.  One night several years ago, he came rushing into my room, out of breath, to inform me that something “really serious” had happened. It somehow involved flying pieces of broken light bulb glass and smoke. Fearing an impending fire, I flew to the site of concern. Sure enough, there was a light bulb with a substantial portion missing. After a bit of searching, I found the little jettisoned piece lying almost ten feet from the lamp.

I wondered at the laws of physics that had been at work here when I saw… what looked like the remnants of a water drop on a piece of glass. I asked my son if water had been dropped onto the bulb. With very deliberate speech, he said that perhaps…when he had been talking…a piece of saliva…might have been expelled onto the bulb. Why had he been talking to a lamp?…I thought. 

Then I noticed the desert dry rivulets of previous spit streams that were encrusted upon this defenseless bulb. “Son…?” I called quietly.  My incredulous tone betrayed the calm I otherwise possessed.   What I’m thinking might have happened here couldn’t really have happened….could it?   “Son,” I said again… “have you actually been spitting on this light bulb?” 

No answer. 
He gave me a very wide-eyed and fearful expression. 
Let’s try again. 
“Son…why were you spitting on this light bulb?”

I could visualize seventeen or eighteen wheels turning in his head. Finally, the answer I shall never forget emerged. 
“Because I like the sizzle”

In spite of the very clear dangers, I burst out laughing. (I know that many children go through a saying “NO!” stage.  Some go through a biting stage. But no one ever warned me about the “spitting-on-light bulbs-stage”).  I think the most revealing part of the story can be summed up in the line “I like the sizzle!” 

These kids do indeed like the sizzle.  They like to 

	See the sizzle
	Hear the sizzle and often
	BE the sizzle

That is a part of their wonderfulness…and also a part of the challenge in sharing daily life with them. That sizzle can lead them into wonderful discoveries of humor, learning and experience. But that same desire for sizzle can lead them into difficulties.   Our hopes in this group is to limit the difficult side with shared strategies and to more fully celebrate the wonderful side that is so often missed. 

And here comes the “Bop” part of  Sizzle Bop!  There is a daily dance of life that is unique to the shared time with these high energy individuals.  In spite of all of their challenges, there is a charged and delightful energy that comes with the package.  In our family, we’ve chosen to dance to the music, to join in the bop, instead of trying to turn down the music.

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Tags: bop, dance, light bulb, sizzle