Thunderstorms

We had quite the stormy night tonight, and I'm reminded of a piece by Garrison Keillor (from salon.com, June 2001) that I've held onto for years:

Some big thunderstorms rolled across St. Paul last week, with lots of nearby lightning strikes to shake the windows and a downpour of rain, and Mr. Blue got to stand on the front porch with Baby Blue and enjoy the rock 'n' roll. It's a modest life here in River City, no struggle for fame and power, just the occasional spell of weather, and a good June thunderstorm is a great boon in every way. It rinses the air and greens up the lawn and garden and gives us a demonstration of power far beyond human control. And the thunderclaps make a little girl laugh out loud. And afterward everything is somehow changed, the ions rearrange. You go for a walk after a good rollicking thunderstorm and feel your own life slightly altered. We live in a mixed bag of a neighborhood, the sort of neighborhood you find a lot of in St. Paul, which doesn't have lawn police, and as you stroll around, you pass old manses lovingly restored and Home & Garden yards and you also pass old manses with trees growing out of the eaves and ancient rags for curtains and yards that look as if the owners are seriously on heroin. But after a deluge, we're all refreshed, obsessive and neglectful alike, and a sort of democracy of meteorology prevails. And as I write this, the sky is darkening and the light turning purplish and there is a great stillness in the yard. Two hundred miles east of here, a westbound plane from Boston is slowing down as the FAA computers tracking the storm rearrange the landing slots at Minneapolis-St. Paul and the sleeping forms in Row 23 stir slightly at the change of engine pitch and the pilot comes on the P.A. and warns of possible turbulence and the lady in 2A asks for another bloody mary and west of here the farmers whose fields are already soggy go to the refrigerator and get out a beer and here in our house a little girl looks out the window at the dark sky and turns to me and says, "Boom!"

After further deliberation, I've decided to append a couple albums to my last list of albums with no bad tracks. Which edges it to a Great Eight list instead of a Top Five, but let's be honest - I've always played fast and loose with the constrictions of five.

1. U2 - Achtung Baby
2. Dave Matthews Band - Crash
3. 10,000 Maniacs - MTV Unplugged
4. Paul Simon - Rhythm of the Saints
5. Simon & Garfunkel - Concert in Central Park
6. Soundtrack - The Last of the Mohicans
7. Leeland - The Sound of Melodies

Default Bloggage

I have a dozen or so blog posts started, but I'm not sufficiently inspired to flesh any of them out today, and it's been a while since I posted anything.

So, I default to top-five lists:

Canceled TV Shows
(in honor of current television blight)
1. The Wonder Years
2. Mad About You
3. Dharma & Greg
4. The Muppet Show
5. Quantum Leap [tie]
5. Grapevine [tie]


Albums Without Anything Less Than a Mediocre Track
1. U2 - Achtung Baby
2. Dave Matthews Band - Crash
3. 10,000 Maniacs - MTV Unplugged
4. Paul Simon - Rhythm of the Saints
5. Simon & Garfunkel - Concert in Central Park


OPI Nail Polish
1. I'm Not Really a Waitress
2. Kinky in Helsinki
3. Friar Friar Pants on Fire
4. La Paz-itively Hot
5. God Save the Queen's Nails


Flowering Plants
1. Plumeria
2. Jacaranda
3. Agapanthus
4. Bougainvillea
2. Old English Roses (but peonies, too, because they look somewhat similar) [tie]
5. Wisteria [tie]
(just noticed they're almost all purple)

Life Lessons at the Bathroom Sink

Over break, we spent time with our niece, who is six years old. As I helped her get ready for bed, she spat out the toothpaste after half a swish and proceeded to rinse her brush as if done. I called her on it, and she insisted she had finished. Incredulously, I thought, "I'm standing right here watching you!" But with a stubbornness that can outlast that of a first-grader, I finally got her teeth brushed that evening. The interaction sparked some thought. Here I am, older and wiser, with this child lying straight to me. Admittedly over a relatively trivial thing - but character informs the casual everyday choices infinitely more often than the "big decisions" - nor was it malicious. But no less a lie. Picture the scene - this very young child trying to sell me on something that we both know to be patently false. Really? Guts coupled with ignorance - and it certainly happens all the time. I'm not a child psychologist (by training, at least), but it has to be a flavor of the boundary-testing and exertion of independence that seems to be human nature, especially in growing up. Give it a try - if they buy it, then you're off the hook. And getting away with it once emboldens. The vigilance that a parent must have to keep these untruths of youth from manifesting themselves into a pervasive habit - to say nothing of the tenacity required... an exhausting job. Makes me wonder how many times I appeared completely foolish in front of my parents, thinking I know more than they do and trying to convince them of it. I'm sure I still do it. But the scope of this foolishness can't be understood without the other perspective. It's not limited to parents and children, either, it's present in the academic dishonesty at school. And extrapolated further, how many times do I pray, talking to God about something that's going on and rationalizing or justifying my actions; meanwhile, He's standing right next to me, knowing full well I haven't finished brushing my teeth. Yet, His patience for our absurdity is infinite. It was a good reminder of the transparency I aspire to have, to say nothing of the insight into the requirements of parenthood.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2008, everyone!

I know it's trite, but this past year really did fly by. I don't know where the last half of the year went. I swear, I looked up from everything, only to find that it was the beginning of December, already.

So I'll do the usual thing of listing my resolutions. Which aren't resolutions, per se, but a list of things I'd like to do this year. Which essentially absolves me of responsibility for seeing them through, of course, but hey, you have to start somewhere.

#1: I'll rollover the my resolution for, like, the past eight years: to get in touch with five people with whom I have lost contact. Facebook and its ilk have been remarkably helpful in achieving this resolution in 2007, however, I fell short of my goal of five. Three isn't bad. Four, if you count blog-stalking. :)

Corollary to #1: Stay in better touch, and send things when I think of them. I've had a sympathy card and a photograph set aside to send to a family for over two years now. I'm going to actually sit down and get these things written. There's no excuse, especially when I love mail - even if it's something difficult like a sympathy note.

#2: "Lose weight" is overdone - not to mention ripe for failure - but I really just want to make an effort to be more active. I'm hoping that will help me lose that which I've acquired over the past six months or so. I would like to take walks nightly when I get home, or after dinner - and that's going to require a change in my departure time from school. We'll see how this plays out!

#3: Express more love to more people. It is what I, as a Christian, am called - nay, commanded - to do. I should be less stingy about it.

#4: Read more, but also write more. I need to make more time for personal reading - it always gets such a short shrift during the school year, so I should just make it a higher priority. To accompany my reading, I would like to do more writing. I mean, I have this blog, but it's pretty casual, if you hadn't noticed. I'd like to do more researched writing. Where I'm going to find the time for this, I don't know. But I'm sure I can stuff it in somewhere. I just need to give fewer assignments, right? :)

#5: Improve my posture. I need to stop slouching. Particularly when seated - I need to be mindful of sitting up straight. This is where taking ballet as a kid would have helped.

I wish you all peace and joy in the coming year. I don't know what 2008 holds, but I'm sure it will be some extraordinary stuff!