Well, daughter #1 returned safely from Wyoming and dutifully impressed her nephew with pictures of giant trucks.
As well he should be.
Meanwhile baby Ida is becoming a music prodigy…
She can even play with her feet!
And Katie went to the dentist for the first time and was a champ…
I made it through round #1 of my reunion.
We had to sit through some blather from the current headmaster, but it was really quite pleasant and good to see some old classmates. Onward and upward.
Have a good weekend!
Let us go forth into the world, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit.
Today is the first day of my 50th high school reunion extravaganza. Please pray for me. I am going to two of the five planned events/get-togethers. And my two oldest BFFs are coming over for lunch on Saturday. Also our church Pig Roast is being held later that day…so it will be a busy weekend!
This bit from Amor Towles’ new novella Eve in Hollywood seems apropos:
Taking a deep breath, Prentice steeled his resolve and began making his way through the crowd toward his host.
It was a humbling journey. A gauntlet composed of every sort of slight. First there was the director of light romances who turned his body just enough to make a casual encounter with Prentice less likely. Then the actress who hadn’t worked since the advent of talkies, who waved at Prentice enthusiastically. Then the writer of droll comedies who nudged a fellow scribbler in order to make a wry remark resulting in an audible guffaw. While scattered throughout were starlets whose eyes barely settled on Prentice at all, recognizing instinctively from the way the others treated him that he was not a man of consequence.
Well, so be it. For that which humbles our sense of vanity prepares us to face that which insults our sense of honor!
Today is also the National Day of Prayer. Following a challenge by Billy Graham, the spring observance was established by President Harry Truman in 1952. Get praying, y’all.
I have to say: thank goodness for Florida. The University of Florida released a memo to students late last week outlining what conduct was unacceptable and the consequences that protesters would face if they chose to violate school policy. “This is not complicated: The University of Florida is not a daycare, and we do not treat protesters like children — they knew the rules, they broke the rules, and they’ll face the consequences,” the school said. Local media reported that nine individuals were arrested on campus by the university’s police department and the Florida Highway Patrol. Would that other universities and college administrators could be so direct and follow through so mindfully.
And here is John Piper’s counsel for godly parenting. Really good advice.
*The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 13 Those who are planted in the house of the Lord Shall flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing, 15 To declare that the Lord is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
Hello from daughter #2! I am checking in today to share a bit from our new home in the midwest. We have been here for nearly 3 months, and I think that is fairly represented in the state of our unpacking. We have been entirely functional for quite some time, we have purchased a few vintage/antique “scores” for new spaces we have in this house, and we have hung up some artwork — albeit, mostly in existing holes in the walls. The basement, however, is still hiding dozens of half-packed boxes.
One of the biggest undertakings has been the gargantuan task of unpacking our book collection. DN and I had lived in two apartments and a house together before moving to this home, which means we have packed and unpacked (or stored) books numerous times. DN brought boxes that had been packed for 10 years!
“I am unpacking my library. Yes, I am. The books are not yet on the shelves, not yet touched by the mild boredom of order. . . .I must ask you to join me in the disorder of crates that have been wrenched open, the air saturated with the dust of wood, the floor covered with torn paper, to join me among piles of volumes that are seeing daylight again after two years of darkness, so that you may be ready to share with a bit of the mood–it is certainly not an elegiac mood but, rather, one of anticipation–which these books arouse in the genuine collector.”
Walter Benjamin, “Unpacking My Library”
Yes, there was a satisfying anticipation to seeing the collection spread out all together on our dining room floor — I was happy to remember all that we have, and consider how we might sort things, and arrange them in various places, and decide what I might re-read next. The project also revealed, in a satisfying way, all that could be sorted out of the collection: mostly those books I never liked in the first place, but held onto for some feeling of what I should have or might need as a “literary scholar.” How freeing to simply keep the books I like!
Fun fact: all these years collecting together account for five copies of Mrs. Dalloway and six copies of Moby-Dick, none of which we would really consider giving away. There’s the first copy of Moby-Dick I ever read, the copy I purchased in Ireland to re-read, the copy I gave to DN the first Christmas after I met him, at least one desk copy, a new Norton Critical Edition that was sent to me, and a Rockwell Kent illustrated edition that my mother gave me. I recall once babysitting children at their grandparents’ house, where the man had an entire (full) bookcase dedicated to editions of Moby-Dick. He also had a pond with koi named Moby and Dick. Oh, how I can now relate!
This project is not yet complete, but it is satisfying to see the built-in bookshelves in our family room nearly full with books (and yes, a few toys).
dual personalities 