Never say never

I wore them down. Week after week my students walked into room and tried to remain unaffected. They ranged from uninterested and guarded to disruptive, disrespectful, and downright mean. But I wore them down. Week after week I put music out there with all the enthusiasm I could muster. (Some days this was zero, but God carried me.)

The younger grades have been having a blast all year, but some of the older students have been hard to reach. However, in the last few weeks there have been many actual musical moments with every class. Last week there 8th graders asking for more, high schoolers improvising like crazy, 6th grade boys playing ukelele, and nearly everybody creating original patterns with puili sticks.

I never thought this would happen.

It's another testimony to the allure of music, and the power of prayer and persistence.

Little Mementos

The little mementos you left behind – bits of pencils which I gave you and you broke into little pieces and threw around the room, the mallets you tossed on the floor before you left class, the tissue you used and stuffed under your chair

Illustrate my failure.

I used to love.

Love my work. Love my students. Love my days.

I know I should love you

Staring back at me in apathetic indifference

Resisting insolently

Resisting insistently. Daring me to drag some glimmer of interest

From whatever defense you have constructed.

But

What if I can’t

12 Mega rolls of Charmin

I haven’t written for a while. Mom used to say, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”

They say the average person makes 10’s of thousands of decisions every day. I haven’t heard any statistics about the average ratio of good vs. bad decisions.

Friday after work I decided to ride my bike to drop off my cleaning. That was a good call – beautiful weather.
On my way home I decided to stop by Krogers and pick up a few groceries. Good call.

While in the store I decided to buy 12 mega rolls of Charmin. Seemed like a good call until I realized it didn’t fit in any of the bags on my bike.

I decided to try riding home with one hand on the handlebars and the 12 mega rolls tucked under the other arm. Hmmm, after-work traffic, on the bike, one handed. Seemed like a bad idea.

I decided if I fell that on the way down I would work it out so I fell on the Charmin.

I couldn’t decide what exactly the passers-by were thinking when they saw a guy pedaling along with 12 mega rolls of toilet paper tucked under his arm, but I made it home without incident, so it turned out to be a good call, since there was no toilet paper remaining in the house.

I can’t speak to the other 59,994 decisions I made on Friday, but I think these turned out ok.

Perspective

Starting over again has the benefit of seeing things from a fresh perspective. Over the last month or 6 weeks life has been pretty intense. Here are a few observations I have made about Cincinnati, myself, and life in general.

Chili served on top of spaghetti noodles is actually not so bad.
Hard times are harder when you are alone.
Running on hills takes some getting use to, especially running down.
Having a pair of Great Horned Owls hang out in your back yard is pretty cool.
I can hold up under a great deal of personal difficulty, but not without whining.
When you are unemployed two weeks before school starts, any job looks GOOD.
I don’t have tuberculosis.

Noah and I

This post is arriving late, but it has been in my brain for a month, so I’d better write it. As you know, I was in Guatemala and then Mexico right after school let out. I arrived in Dallas on the afternoon of June 25. My neighbor Rhodney picked me up at the airport. I was saying goodbye to my life in Texas and trying not to think about it. I was home just long enough to walk through the house one more time, and around 6 or 7 PM I set out for my new home in Cincinnati.

I hated to say “Goodbye” to Rhodney and Marianne. We had become good friends, and I had imagined us growing old across the alley together – talking as we took out the trash, or finished mowing the yard like you do in North Texas with your alley neighbors. (The driveways are in the back of the house, so you see your neighbor who lives directly behind you more than any other.)

I drove east out of Texas towards Texarkana, and arrived at the border about sunset. Behind me was a beautiful sunset, and I took a picture. The last time I will see the sun set over Texas. It was sort of poetic – you know – parallel with my life.

Ahead of me there was a rainbow. At the time it seemed like a sign – I will never again be destroyed by a flood.

Corn Hole Anyone?

First impressions of Cincinnati.

I now am very well acquainted with our house, having covered every inch of it, including the ceilings with new paint, and re-acquainted with all our possessions, having moved them all many times from box to room to other room to out-of-the-way-so-I-can-paint.

Today I started on the only remaining surfaces by tearing up carpet.

Sometimes I stop moving or painting and leave the house. For example, delivering resumes to people who don’t have job openings. Here’s what I have found.

The founders of West Chester liked cars and roads, but had not been exposed to the concept of sidewalks. There are no sidewalks and few roads have a shoulder. There are a lot of people who live here, therefore a lot of cars. Non automobile travelers (runners and bikers) have to keep their eyes open.

Most of the roads are windy and most of them don’t go anywhere. There are more dead-ends here than a career in the mortgage industry. You can count all the roads in town that go anywhere on your fingers. Google map it and you’ll see.

My first day here I noticed an old, brightly-painted, yellow building. There were various signs on it, labeling it as a drive-through store where you can buy alcohol, snacks, and “Corn Hole Accs.” Right. Corn Hole??? Yesterday I stopped in. It turns out these stores are common out here. People call them a “Brew Thru.” They are, in fact, a drive through convenience store. You drive in and tell the guy what you want (everything from Bud Light to potato chips) and wait in the car while he fetches it.

And Corn Hole? This turns out to be a game. Basically you throw bean bags at a board with a hole in it. Corn Hole Accs (accessories) turn out to be the bean bags.

Brew Thrus and Corn Hole are very popular, sidewalks failed to make the list.

That’s it for tonight.

Still

In retrospect, I didn’t really mean “Happy,” rather, contented or at peace. I’m at peace. (two days…)