Last night we were sitting round the table and Kit was talking about going Emo.
"Emo? You don't even know what that is," Tio challenged.
"Sure I do. Black hair, black clothes, heavy make up."
"But why are they Emo?" I asked.
"They like to cut themselves," Kit added.
"None of that makes you Emo," Tio said.
"Really, though, why does that make you Emo?" I asked. "I mean, why do they do those things?"
"Because they have low self-esteem and hide behind the costume to feel better about themselves," he said all perky. "Just like me."
I did a double take. He was smiling like the cat with the canary. I bumped him with my elbow.
"Someone's been paying attention," I said. "Good for you. Let's paint our toenails black this weekend."
Today, Kit and I went to emergency safety counseling to resolve the threatening behavior that got him suspended from school yesterday. We met a therapist who had some great insight into the layers of protection that Kit has surrounded himself with and why he seems hyperactive but isn't ADD. Without going into detail here, it connected several threads that we've been working on and introduced what I'm hoping might be a way forward with the school.
What is so spooky about it, is that Kit's insight into himself about Emo self doubt was right on the mark.
