Thirty or so years ago, my most important posession was my serve. Aces and becoming more precise in service was my consuming passion. It seems so minute now, with husband and children to concern me.
Years after Highschool, I went back and told the athletes that there was one thing that I took from school that I use every single day and that is the service. The whistle blows in life and you say "I do" and the referee is counting every service, ace and fault. It is certainly not as easy as serving 15 aces in a row to win the game. It is more delicate, but it does boil down to the service and the teamwork. I hope that you are learning to serve well. I hope that you will understand the metaphor.
Today is the water fight at AWANA. Tomorrow is the concert and then it is somewhat downhill to the years end. 7th grade is a growth process for the both of us. Glasses are needed by you, to see the world clearly and by me, to see you.
Some emotional discussions you pick up so swiftly. Some visual distinctions are very foggy to you. I can see that your vision is a real concern to us, as usual. You see very deeply into the emotional, but not so much of the things around you. I am hoping that we can remedy the situation asap. Love you!
What a cyberventure it was to go to a "Webinar". I was so struck with the beauty and cybervenience and delight, that some of the information flew between my radar screens.
This is the second time that I signed up to go to a Webinar. I missed the first one, because I forgot and fell asleep. I was so upset that I had missed it.
An hour before, I started to go into a panic attack. How should I dress for a Webinar? Should I eat before or after. What happens if I don't have a webcam, {which I don't}. What should I say, if they ask me if I had been to a Webinar before? There were loads of questions of cyberactivity flooding my brain and I could have missed this one on purpose because of the hullaballoo. I said, maybe I need to have Emily's newer and more loaded computer or her I{whatever}pad, pod, etc. She wouldn't have it. She wouldn't lend it to me for the meeting. Maybe I needed to call the phone number for sound, since, I haven't a webcam. The phone number looked like a number from China. How much would that cost? Do they charge you for all of the numbers that you put into the phone. Now this is getting too complicated in my mind. I am only slightly exagerating the emotional tumult.
At 15 minutes before the meeting, I decided not to make any other arrangements other than worrying and getting upset that I already was. I would do the long directions and see if my computer would allow me to attend the webinar, without having to call China on the phone for simulcast. I was shocked to find out that they let you into the webinar, even if you don't have a webcam or a microphone or haven't called China. They didn't care if you hadn't put on your makeup and weren't dressed like a moviestar. You didn't have to be seen and see all of the people that were at the meeting.
The information was well worth the effort. But the anxiety attack before the meeting was laughable after.
I felt empowered. I felt cyberpowered. I felt State of the Arts. I was a new millenium mommy, at last.
I feel a surge of deep satisfaction Much as a king astride his noble steed When I return from daily strife to heart and wife How pleasant is the life I lead!
Mrs. Banks: [Spoken] Dear, it's about the children...
Mr. Banks: Yes, yes, yes!
[Sung] I run my home precisely on schedule At 6:01, I march through my door My slippers, sherry, and pipe are due at 6:02 Consistent is the life I lead!
It's grand to be an Englishman in 1910 King Edward's on the throne; It's the age of men I'm the lord of my castle The sov'reign, the liege! I treat my subjects: servants, children, wife With a firm but gentle hand Noblesse oblige!
It's 6:03 and the heirs to my dominion Are scrubbed and tubbed and adequately fed And so I'll pat them on the head And send them off to bed Ah! Lordly is the life I lead!
A British nanny must be a gen'ral! The future empire lies within her hands And so the person that we need to mold the breed Is a nanny who can give commands!
A British bank is run with precision A British home requires nothing less! Tradition, discipline, and rules must be the tools Without them - disorder! Catastrophe! Anarchy! - In short, we have a ghastly mess!
Looking at the earlier examples of masculinity, we must put our scaffolding on securely and beware of the despising of our fathers. I find this song, from Mary Poppins, though a stereotype, it is an accurate depiction of the aim of earlier European generations. Time management and Money stewardship were dominant and Husbanding and Fathering were smaller wheels on the vehicle, if on the vehicle at all. There was a folly in looking at the masculinity of the past that viewed femininity as inferior in personhood, as opposed to, in office. As we look at the image of God, reflected in the lyrics of our elders about their elders; some of the expressions are in anger, because they were the ones who lost their fathers to the industrial revolution. They cry, in the lyrics of mimicking their elders. Was their way right? Could we ever get back to some of those ambitions, from this side of the Feministic revolution? I think not. I think that there are diamonds in their study, but that for the most part Chauvenism created Feminism. In Chauvinism or in Feminism, we are called to look at God's standards and not the standards that our forefathers encrypted on the walls of the caves of civilization that is around us. God is Sovereign and He is to be imitated in His loving servant leadership. But, we must take the diamonds out of the cave of prior civilizations before they collapse around us. This diamond is the diamond of time management and control of the home and the how's of this that was passed down in the journals of time. This means making a schedule for the morning and for the evening time. This means controlling yourself first, so that you will be the man that God wants to use to manage a family in the fear of God. Some men major in precision and some major in the loving service. God calls men to be merciful, loving and precise in our leadership. Lets start with the scheduling.
I am so glad that you respect your brother. I hope that God will give you much fellowship with eachother, as the age difference lessens in significance. I love the loyalty that you have forged.
We are such absent-minded professor type people. Where is your other sock? Where is your progress report? Where is your...? I loved telling you about "Carmen Jones" from the old days when you weren't born. I told you there are women who will take advantage of a handsome young sweet fellow like you. Dorothy Dandridge played the part very well. Nobody could have resisted her. She was a "femme-fatale" in that movie. Don't you watch it, just take my word for it. Love means telling you the good parts of being a man and the difficulties. Wear your tie. Remember your assignments and watch out for the "femme-fatales".
