We saw the Cy Fair players yesterday in Murder in the Wings. It’s a really, really funny play.
Here’s Beth, I mean “Bobby June”, the pistol-packing, faux-Southern Belle undercover agent. She did great.
(for what it’s worth, I uploaded this photo here with the new Image Uploader SnapOn released in bloo version 1.34).
Where we’ve been: Soccer Tournament, Blake’s team, at the Wide World of Sports at Disney, We drove, leaving last Wednesday with Blake and Bethany. The college kids did not come with, but we had thanksgiving with them Tuesday night, and another at Landry’s in Orlando with the team on Thursday night.
What Happened: Wind happened. Wind and nerves, at least in the first game, which we lost but could have/should have won. It was a bummer but we dominated the rest of pool play, under much better playing conditions, and ended up tied with the first place team in our pool. Unfortunately, they are also the team that beat us so they won the tiebreaker and went to the medal round (they lost in the finals).
Since Then: We left Orlando yesterday, and were much delayed by three (count ’em!) separate traffic tie ups (caused by wrecks) along the way. We decided to drive straight through on the way home – our trip to Orlando had an overnight stop in it, but we were anxious to get home. We arrived around 6:15am this morning. The trip took about seventeen hours.
Me: Tired but happy.
We’re thanking God that our two college kids are back home after successful semesters. They are growing up so quick!
And we’re also thanking God for providing in such miraculous ways. We’ve got four kids, which equates to (under normal circumstances) sixteen years of college. Well, we’ve made it through the equivalent of three years of college – one of ours just finished his sophomore year, the other her freshman year – with neither ourselves nor our kids having to go into any debt thus far.
My daughter’s high school theater group just finished a run of the play The Women of Lockerbie. Jill and I went to every show. Of course, a big reason for that was that Bethany was playing the central role of Madeline, the grieving mother. But we also went because the play is a great play, done in the form of a Greek tragedy, complete with a chorus, and Bethany’s theater group performed it so well. It is a wrenching, haunting exploration of grief, hatred, love and cleansing.
In the final scene, as Madeline and the women of Lockerbie washed the clothes of the dead, a recording of the song below was played. It’s heartbreaking and I thought I’d share it with you.
Whaur Dae Ye Lie?
Karine Polwart
Chorus:
Whaur dae ye lie, my faither?
Whaur dae ye lie, my son?
Whaur dae ye lie, my ain true love?
When will the truth be won?
Oor friends, they came tae protect us
Oor friends they bad us bide
Oor friends left us standing there naked
Wi nae place left tae hide
Oor neighbours, they came wi a hundred year hate
Oor neighbours, they came wi guns
Oor neighbours, they came for oor menfolk
An they slew them, everyone
I hae sought oot yer grave wi my mother
I hae sought oot yer grave in vain
I hae sought the bare banes o’ the truth and the men
Faither, whaur are ye lane?
I hae cried oot yer name tae the for winds
I hae cried oot yer name til the dawn
I hae cried in the arms o’ yer sister dear
Whaur dae ye lie my son?
I hae dream’d o’ yer breath upon me
I hae dream’d o’ yer yella hair
I hae dream’d o’ the sounds o yer dyin love
Whaur dae ye lie, my dear?
The college and young singles home group last night was great – a whole lot of them came over (I think we had around 16 to 20 or thereabouts). I love those people! They were talkative, open, we ate, sang, studied, discussed, prayed and played games together. It was a good start.
Jill and I were talking last night, and I remarked that we’ll have ups and downs in this thing. Last night was an up, but my goal is to be flexible and persevere through the downs.
I spent the last few hours dragging seventeen years of stuff out of our attic. The garage now looks like a landfill, but the attic is completely cleaned out. Now to start rebuilding . . . the great Garage Renovation of 2010 is in progress. Slow progress, albeit.
No soccer this weekend. Which is a good thing.
I’m almost done with Bloo version 1.32. Will be deploying the 1.31 test version very soon (maybe today). In 2010, I’ll be doing a lot more (and more frequent) Bloo releases. This first one is more or less a maintenance release, with a few goodies thrown in. More later.
Soon will get my lesson prepared for tomorrow.
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. – John 6:35
Have a great weekend!
Here’s a cool picture of Blake’s soccer team, the Dallas Texans – Houston Division Legend ’98.
Blake is number 25, in front, giving us his best game face. The cool thing about this picture is that every kid who got a team picture got to be in the front. It’s not really a group shot; The photographer took individual pictures of each kid and photoshopped each kid in the front for the shot they purchased. Very nice.
Blake’s team played the first day of a soccer tournament today. It was fun, although it was FREEZING out at the fields. His team won the first game 2-0 against Chivas. Blake scored a goal, capitalizing on a great cross from Pablo. Unfortunately, the second game against Tigres was very tough, and they lost 3-0. Tomorrow they face the Houstonians, which is a very, very tough team.
Go Legend!
Update: They tied the Houstonians 2 to 2, which was disappointing (especially since the Houstonians second goal was off a questionable call resulting in a PK) but the boys played their hearts out in the cold and mud. Well done!
Tonight I attended Open House at Bethany’s high school. I always enjoy these things, and it’s good to meet the teachers. Bethany goes to a great high school, and nearly every teacher she has is obviously in love with teaching and devoted to the kids.
As I walked the halls with the other parents, prodded along helpfully by student volunteers, it occurred to me that, for our society, people in my age bracket are basically done. Our culture worships youth: young, healthy, in shape, beautiful youth. Our celebrities are either young or they are surgically nipped and tucked (and injected and stretched and suctioned) to look young. Our athletes are young. Our artists and musicians are young. Even our President is young, as Presidents go (though he still has a few years on me). I, on the other hand, have crossed the line where I now work out to feel better, rather than to look better. Looking better became an impossibility quite awhile ago. But twenty minutes on an elliptical at level five makes me feel slightly more alive, provided it doesn’t kill me.
So there we were, we middle agers, moving like the lumpen masses we are through the halls of this enormous, modern high school, squinting at the impossibly small print on the school map as we huffed our way to third period.
And the thought hit me: not done. I’m a parent. Jill and I have been parenting now for twenty years, and we’ve got, well, we don’t know how many years left. Technically, in theory, eight more until all the kids are out of the house, four years after that until the last one’s done with college, and, presumably, there will be some weddings sprinkled in there as well, and a grandchild or two or a dozen. But, as the movie Parenthood so wisely put it, you’re never really done. You never cross the goal line and spike the ball. Parenthood is like your Aunt Edna’s [backside]: it goes on forever and it’s twice as frightening.
This is the task. This is the great Odyssey Jill and I are on, and we drive an Odyssey to prove it. We’re in the thick of things, and time will tell how well we did. Time will display our diligence, and it will expose our sloth and passivity, wreathed in regret, should we fail as parents. We’ve either trained up our children in the way they should go, and prepared them for life, or we haven’t. Lord have mercy.
On a side note, I believe firmly that a real man rejects passivity (that’s from Robert Lewis’ Raising a Modern Day Knight – a good study). But I’ve found that passivity is a puzzle. I have large regrets over times I was passive in my children’s lives when I should have been active – I should have seen the storms coming and done . . . something. But I also know that I have a tendency to go off half-cocked and three sheets to the wind as well. After all, being a parent is an exercise in the art of letting go. There comes a time when, as a parent, you’re sidelined and you just get to watch the game, however it goes. The trick is knowing when. Go Team.
Here’s where I’m supposed to insert the obligatory “parenting is hard” statement, along with a lament about “how time flies” and “where did the years go”. Well, fie on that (I’ve been wanting to work “fie” into my conversation recently). Parenting is what it is. It is what God has made it, and parenting plays its role in Christ’s work of grace in salvaging lives and societies in our fallen world. By golly, there’s no sense in either bemoaning it when times are bad or getting complacent when times are good (as they are now, by the way). Because the times will change. This isn’t a job for cowards. It’s also not a job for those with too much bravado. We are dependent.
Parenting is the most important thing I’ve ever done, and probably will ever do. Compared to being a dad, my day job fades to insignificance (other than, of course, as a means to the end of feeding my family). And I’m not done yet. As the kids grow up and I (surprise!) get older, new enemies join the battle, namely the enemies of “boy, am I tired” and “ow, my back hurts”. But all the more reason to strap on the old armor and slog up the hill again. Battles do, after all, have their element of fun, and I have a goal to be old and crotchety, yet hale. We’ll see.
Did I mention that I went to Open House tonight?
A quick list:
Andrew turned twenty yesterday. Yes. Twenty.
We got to see both Andrew and Molly this weekend. Awesome. We’re celebrating Andrew’s birthday tonight.
Bethany won the part of Olga in Stage Door. Not only will she be acting, but she’ll be playing the piano. Great part.
The Dallas Texans – Houston Division U12 Red team (Blake’s team) dominated at the tournament this weekend. They won their four games, 4-1, 4-0, 2-1, and 2-1 against some tough Dallas Texans – Dallas Division competition. They looked fabulous.
We’re blessed.
Check out eldest son’s review of We Get to Carry Each Other: The Gospel According to U2 by Greg Garrett. It appeared in Baylor University’s The Lariat today.
