“Don’t damage my fingernail clippers while you’re saving the world.”
“Vampires don’t ever clip their fingernails.”
“Could you please save the world more quietly?”
“Is this marker toxic?…Oh. So is it bad that I licked it?”
“Mom, Moriah’s intentionally annoying me by not opening her mouth when I’m trying to feed her peanut butter she doesn’t want to eat!” Not that he was that forthright about it…
I just ran across this fascinating sentence in the course of a google search. “The Petersen graph is the smallest snark.” I have no idea what this means, but it sounds intriguing, doesn’t it?
Yesterday was my birthday (as you all know by now) and at my birthday feast James asked me what was the highlight of this past year. I couldn’t come up with one, but together we made a list of the highpoints of my twentieth year on God’s earth. These are not in order of importance. I’ll write them as they intrude on my consciousness. I caught a baby! It’s hard to get a cooler experience than that. Even now I will sometimes look at Justice and think that mine were the first hands to touch him. I made and wore an orange dress. This isn’t necessarily a highlight in itself, but I know it was the beginnings of honesty and liveliness in my clothing. I was talking to one of my sisters (the one without Internet) and she said that when I left Erie the most color she remembered me wearing was dark blue. And now I wear orange. I have become much more at ease with myself. I say what I mean and I mean what I say. People are starting to be able to get to know who I am under the mask that looks like my skin. I don’t think there was a moment when this happened. I only noticed it after it was already. I am more able to deal with more children. Crystal has left me with four and sometimes five children when she needed to go do something without them. We go to the Lansberry house and I am assaulted by nine children. When I first got here I couldn’t have handled that, but now it is easier to take it in stride. I can see the purpose I am here. I can see the reason God put me where I am. There are many people who have no idea why they are doing what they do. I am reminded every time I wash dishes and Crystal thanks me with the tiredness in her eyes. I am reminded every time Seth and Crystal mention they never used to get out together. I am reminded when Noah runs up with a smile and when Arianna asks me a question. I go to a friend’s house and she gets to take a nap that she never would have gotten. And I am reminded when Raquel says she is grateful I am her friend. It has been a very good year. The year was full of trouble, sorrow and fatigue. The year was full of light, joy and laughter. To God be all praise and honor. Amen
Today is the third day of Christmas, and therefore the feast-of-somebody-or-other. I never knew whose feast it was, and today I don’t really care. (Okay, I care a little, but it is definitely of secondary importance.) Today is Gabrielle’s birthday. I post this
Today I went to feed Jonathan’s cats so that Gabrielle wouldn’t have to, because her life (IMHO) is crazy enough as it is. Even though I get lost quite frequently I was fairly confident in my ability to find their house, considering it is the house I used to live in. It felt odd to drive into Marquette Heights. It’s still the one place where I am completely confident of my ability to get where I’m trying to go. I know those roads in a way I don’t know the roads in Peoria. But I wasn’t driving home on those roads this time, and I felt it. I pulled the van into the spot of the driveway where I always parked it, and walked in the front door. I hadn’t seen the house since we moved out, so I was curious. How different would it look? I walked in and it was different. I was greeted by a couple of cats, for one thing. Between different furniture and different colors I could barely recognize the house I’d lived in. This didn’t bother me, of course. I’m far more sensible than that. Yeah, right. Actually, it’s true that it didn’t bother me, but it did make me a little sad. I had good memories attached that house, and they’re not attached anymore. Jonathan and Carrie’s house bears no relation to the house where Gabrielle and I stayed up late packing kitchen utensils, or the house where Gabrielle broke our broom (twice). It’s a little silly, but I guess I’m afraid I might lose all those good memories now that there’s nothing to remind me of them. I drove home tired and a little distracted. I’ll use that as my excuse for missing the exit that I knew I needed to take. I kept going until I recognized a street name on an exit and knew I could get home from there. Then I turned the wrong way on that street, realizing it seconds too late. In the process of turning around I found another road I recognized, only then I was in the wrong lane… But I got home. I made it the whole way home on my knowledge of Peoria streets. James pointed out that I went way out of my way, but I did it. When I turned onto the last street before home, I felt just a touch of what I’d felt driving through Marquette Heights–the certainty that no matter what, I could get where I needed to go from here, and the familiarity of having driven this stretch dozens of time before. I had to smile when I saw a car parked on each side of our driveway, and a car across the street. It made it hard to pull in–but it always did, and I’d seen it before, and I knew I could handle it. And I did.
I didn’t wish y’all a Merry Christmas, so rather than giving you belated greetings I wish you all a very happy St. Stephen’s Day. Today is the proper day to sing St. Stephen’s carols–er, carol. This last week has been busy with various Christmas preparations and gatherings. Since Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, we had most of our Christmas festivities on Christmas Eve. The children (somehow) carried through on their plans to get up in the middle of the night open their stockings. The tradition has always been that they are allowed to open stockings as soon as they wake up in the morning—yes, even at two-thirty in the morning. I heard the yelling and promptly rolled over to go back to sleep until a decent hour for present opening. This year I knit klein bottle hats for James, Seth and my father. I’d been working on the hats for at least six months (counting all the times that I ran out of yarn). Certain select people knew about this, but I avoided mentioning to the recipients even the existence of such things. Since I’d already given them mobius scarves, it wouldn’t have been hard for them to guess what this year’s Christmas present was. When the words ‘klein bottle hat’ slipped out in a conversation with James I panicked. This panic was, of course, hidden beneath a cool and calm exterior. He didn’t suspect a thing… Just to make sure of this I stuffed his hat as far into a mug as it would go and put an empty cardboard tube around the rest of it before I wrapped it. The klein bottle hats were a success, and (I think) end the Christmas topological shapes tradition. I don’t think I’m up for making lorenz manifolds… I crocheted chokers for Theresa, Crystal and Gabrielle. (Note this–crocheted, not knit. There is a difference. There will be a test. Well, no, there won’t be a test, but do try to keep them differentiated in your mind.) I had a lot of fun trying to make each choker just right for the person I was giving it to. There’s a blue choker still in my workbasket that just wasn’t coming out quite right for anyone. In the end, Gabrielle’s choker was purple with plenty of sparkly beads, Theresa’s was dark red with silver-black beads, and Crystal’s was black with silver-black beads and one metal bead for a focal point. It’s now the day after Christmas and life goes on. This week will be busy with Gabrielle’s birthday, trying to get together with people who are on break from college classes, and a house dedication (finally) scheduled for Saturday. Still, now that all gifts have been opened I can’t help wondering–what am I going to make for birthday presents next year?
Tonight we were at the Lansberry house. We ate dinner and were tired together for while. We read from the Bible and sang eight verses of O Come, O Come, Emannuel and then we opened Chanukah presents. Raquel had conspired to have a gift ready for Crystal who didn’t buy herself something. The children dashed off and played and we stayed far too late. Happy Chanukah!
O Emmanuel, God with us, our King and Lawgiver, the expected of the nations and their Savior: Come, to save us, O Lord our God. Amen. God the eternal, most holy spirit became a man. He was born, He was potty trained and sometimes He would ask for something and His parents couldn’t understand what He wanted. He took on all of the death the world lives under and He lived it with us. And so He will not leave us here to suffer forever. He will come and He will ransom us from our captivity. Veni, Veni, Emmanuel. Amen and Amen.
I just finished reading The Last Battle, the seventh and last of the Chronicles of Narnia. It used to be the one I avoided reading, but now I think it is my favorite. I used to avoid this book because you are given a front row seat of the end of all that you loved. I would give several body parts to be able to live in Narnia and Mr. Lewis destroys it. It is torn apart by evil and deceit from within. The creature’s belief in Aslan is shaken and the Dwarves turn their backs on everyone else. Talking Animals are enslaved and living trees are murdered. It is not a happy beginning. I feel heartbroken every time I read it. Most people I talk to, though, say it is their favorite. Today I finally got it. The wonder of the book is the end. The end of Narnia comes. Or does it? Is it the End or the Beginning? The characters walk puzzled through a land of morning. Where exactly are they? Aslan has run on ahead and so they follow. As they go they find all the bits of Narnia they loved so much. They reach a golden City and are greeted by friends they have long been separated from. They all go into the City and there is Aslan Himself. He tells them that they really died in our world and now they have come to Aslan’s Country. And He says, “The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.” The Morning came to the characters and it will never end. Lewis closes this beautiful book will these words- ‘And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better that the one before.’ Narnia ended, but it didn’t. All the best bits were waiting for them. And then they lived a story so wonderful no one would believe them if they bothered to come back and tell us. That is a wonderful ending. I can’t believe I used to avoid this book.
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