matching tracksuits

fun in threes, sometimes fours

Spring Sports

Monday 19 April 2021

The year is winding down. The kids and I are accustomed to each others' old habits, and I, at least, view them more-or-less surprise-free, known entities. I know what each of them is likely to do on a given assignment; I know how each of them is likely to act in a given engagement; I know how each of them is likely to respond to a given question.

And then I see them playing sports, and every assumption I had about them goes out the window. The small, quiet, thoughtful girl erupts onto the field with an aggression that is unimaginable in her. The somewhat goofy boy plays with such a serious intensity that he's almost unrecognizable.

Papa’s 80th Birthday Party

Sunday 18 April 2021

80

Saturday 17 April 2021

Happy birthday, Papa!

Reshooting the Church

Friday 16 April 2021

Spring Thursday

Thursday 15 April 2021

Mob Mentality

Wednesday 14 April 2021

The kids wrote another TDA today. I’ll be giving them feedback over the next couple of weeks regarding this as we near the final, actual TDA portion of the state-mandated year-end testing.

Since it was a testing schedule, we only had a few minutes in each class. As they’d already been writing for two hours in the morning, students got a chance to relax a bit and watch 20 minutes or so of the film version of To Kill a Mockingbird. I let them choose from a few scenes:

  • Opening (Meeting Dill)
  • Shooting the Mad Dog
  • Sneaking a Peek at Boo
  • The Attempted Lynching
  • Bob Ewell’s Revenge
  • Meeting Boo

Most classes chose “The Attempted Lynching” and “Bob Ewell’s Revenge.” Every class was surprised about the number of men there trying to lynch Tom Robinson.

“I thought there were only four or five,” one student said, to which almost everyone else nodded in agreement.

We talked for a while about the effect being in a mob has on human behavior. They all suggested good reasons (not getting caught, getting pulled into the emotion of it all, the sheer force and power of numbers), but no one really thought of the anonymity that a mob provides and the way people tend use that anonymity to cloak their on complicity and to hide their own guilt.

We touched on recent events: “I’m not really doing anything. It’s the mob. I just walked into this open building.”

Consulting our Attorney

Tuesday 13 April 2021

Today, students participated in what is always one of the highlights of the year: Mr. Jim Bannister of the Bannister, Wyatt & Stalvey law firm discusses with students the Tom Robinson trial from the perspective of a trained and experienced criminal defense lawyer who has experience representing individuals facing a wide variety of charges. He leads students through an examination of the case to see where Atticus could have done a better job.

Most students, after the presentation, have a new understanding of Atticus’s performance as a criminal defense lawyer.

A casual reading from a non-trained eye leaves the impression that Atticus did a fine job of representing Tom; after the session with Mr. Bannister, students see that Atticus, while he had a good heart and did the best he could, was more of a family law attorney (after all, Miss Maudie brags that Atticus can make a will that stands up to any legal challenge), he was certainly not a criminal lawyer. (Recall, too, that in the opening pages we read that Atticus’s first two clients were the last two executed in Maycomb, and that this was the cause of his “profound distaste” for criminal law.)

Radom, 1996

Monday 12 April 2021

Journal

Monday 12 April 2021

The Unexpected

Sunday 11 April 2021

Our neighbor, Mr. F, has always been something like a grandfather to E. The Boy drops everything to go help him wash his truck or clean their camper. Whenever Mr. F is on his boat, E was there, “helping.” When Mr. F and his wife, Mrs. P, go on long camping trips, Mr. F hires E to keep up with the mail. Every birthday and Christmas, the kids can count on gifts from Mr. F and Mrs. P, and they’ve come to both our kids’ soccer games to cheer them on. They are the best neighbors one could ever hope for.

Mr. F went into the hospital Friday. Last night, Mrs. P came over to our house to ask us to pray for him. “It seems bad,” she said. As K was putting E to bed, she told him that Mr. F was in the hospital and not doing well. He was soon weeping inconsolably. This morning, K took a phone call from Mrs. P in the living room and came back in tears. “Mr. F died this morning.”

I wrote the first paragraph in the present tense because it’s still unreal that he’s gone so suddenly. Just a little over a week ago, he and his wife were on a camping trip with family. Friday I’d spoken to him briefly as I borrowed his truck for the thousandth time at least to go get more mulch. At some point last week, he waved at me as I worked outside with his usual, cheerful, “Hey there, neighbor!”

Cars were parked along the road and in their driveway all day today as people dropped in to offer their condolences. Mr. F was a loved and admirable man, and the world was a better place when he was in it.