Compassion for the Odd

Earl Grey was my tea of choice today. But alas I didn't get a photo of my mug. I started writing a blog about compassion today and abandoned it. Writer's prerogative is what I say. I think I've found a better way to write about compassion.

I hope at some point in your life you've had the opportunity to watch the former USA network series called Monk. This show involves an obsessive compulsive former police detective. His wife died in a car bomb and he's spent years trying to find her killer. In the  meantime he has to pay a nurse to help him function as he works as a consultant for the San Fransisco police department where he used to be employed. I almost forgot the most important part, he's a genius detective. He notices clues others overlook.

My family started watching Monk when it first aired in 2002. This was a summer show and we made sure to get inside by 9:00 every Friday night to watch it. My entire family liked it. Come 2003 we had survived a tornado that destroyed our home in May. So we ended up watching our favorite summer show from a television in a pull behind trailer set up in the pasture land behind our former home. That's how important normalcy, including Monk was to me and my family.

At this time I was teaching a summer school class called Murder Mystery. This class involved a staff member committing a mock murder and it was up to the students in the class to find the killer and convict them of murder before the end of summer school. In the late 1990s and  early 2000s we would watch Murder, She Wrote episodes in class. After a few years,  I could sense the students getting bored with the show. Somehow I managed to acquire a season or two of Monk. So I started showing these in my Murder Mystery class. I can't tell you how much these kids liked this show.

Monk is afraid of a multitude of normal items: germs, milk, naked statues, mud, snakes, trash. The list goes on and on. At the same time, he notices things everyone else overlooks. And for some reason junior high students empathized with him. I did, too! But what attracts these modern preteens to someone as odd as Monk? I know 12 and 13 year olds are going through a weird time in their lives. They may feel like they don't belong, like Monk. They may have their own quirks that no one understands. But I'm amazed at the longevity of this series in my classes.

I'm not joking about this. Kids this year have come up to me to tell me that they found Monk on a specific station. Some of these kids are watching this show in their free time at home! I do the same thing. I even got my mom started on watching it. And she loves it. I wonder if it somehow goes back to compassion. Monk claims his ability to solve crimes others can't as a gift and a curse. I hope my students can see that all people, regardless of their oddities, still have something to offer society. And when they love Monk, I feel there is hope for humanity. And I'll bet I'm right.

Student detectives interrogating a suspect (2017)

You can find Monk Sundays on WE from 9 AM to 5 PM. You can also pick up season DVDs at your local used movie stores. I acquired most of mine at Entertainmart.  I don't think you can go wrong with buying a season or two.