I dreamed a few nights ago that I was teaching a teen whom I mentor in real life, and mentoring students I teach in real life. The teen wrote with approximately the skill of eight-year-old who has stopped caring, and this was not acceptable, even in slumber. I reminded her that her letters needed to “sit on the line.” I say that a few dozen times per week, so it wasn’t surprising that I would bring that up. But after she wasn’t giddy about improving her handwriting, I spouted this line, which I have never even thought in day: “Good handwriting is a gift you give yourself for your whole life.” It wasn’t a nightmare, but I awoke a little scared that I might be that cheesy in real life.
However, if Hallmark ever starts an acadmic line of cards, I think I have a potential second career.
#3 is once again my full-time roommate. Moving in has been a messy process. I came home today and she met me at the door with this warning: “Our room looks like a tornado hit it. Actually, it looks like a tornado hit a Banana Republic, sucked up everything in the store, and dumped it all in our room.” She wasn’t kidding. If I had to get caught in a tornado, though, I think that type would be my favorite.
Filed under: Uncategorized
One of the reasons I tend to stick to family events and anecdotes when I blog is that in all the significant areas of human thought and experience, someone smarter and more articulate than I am has already said what needs to be said. For instance, I took 409 words to say what John Newton wrote better, earlier:
For those who confess themselves to be ’sinners’, and therefore deserving of nothing but misery and wrath–to be proud of those peculiar blessings which are derived from the gospel of God’s grace–is a wickedness of which even the demons are not capable of!
Or, I could just have quoted John Owen:
“The spiritual life which I have is not my own. I did not induce it, and I cannot maintain it. It is only and solely the work of Christ.”
Filed under: Uncategorized
I used to work as an event planner. Most of the events I helped people with were happy ones- graduations, weddings, birthday parties- but funerals and wakes were also part of the job. I actually felt most useful on those events, because most people need more guidance and care when they’re going through grief. One particular Monday, I fielded a call from a woman who needed help with a funeral. I used my most supportive voice: “When is the funeral going to be?”
“Well, we don’t know yet. I guess probably Friday, but we’ll see how he does this week. He’s not actually dead yet.”
Filed under: family
I just discovered that #5 can pogo without hands, and for a long time, too. Amazing!
Student A (in the middle of math): I like your earrings, Miss C.
Me: Well, thank you. That was a kind thing to say.
Student B (super-enthusiastically, probably from his excitement about being kind, not excitement about earrings): I do too! I like them too!
Me: Thank you.
Student C: I don’t like them.
