“I see in you someone who is destined for great things. You’ll find your way, if you’re true to yourself.”
from: Brambleheart: A Story About Finding Treasure
and the Unexpected Magic of Friendship
written and illustrated by Henry Cole
Kathrine Tegen Books, 2016
As I thought about this week’s post, I tried hard to think of something I consider myself to excel in or be outstanding at. Not grammar with that sentence!
I was not very successful with my piano lessons, although I gained a great appreciation for the instrument and a real love of Chopin, especially his preludes, waltzes, and other dances, the simple ones and the complex.
Although I can usually spit back a phone number (2024: this was true until my phone remembered them for me) and I add and subtract my checkbook in my head (mostly), numbers are not really my thing.
My daughters are both good cooks. I told my older daughter she must have a tongue in her brain that helps her think of ingredients that go well together. I don’t have that, but I can follow a recipe.
Common sense is not my forte, either. I do a lot of forehead slapping, you know, when all of a sudden some logical, elusive answer becomes crystal clear. I have lots of ideas, though.
I am not a champion athlete. You might remember I taught myself to roller skate with belts and pillows. And that ice-skating fiasco.
This week, lots of eyes will be on Rio de Janeiro. (2024: Paris) Kids, really, are participating for their chances of a lifetime to excel, to perform, to compete. Athletes, it’s said, love speed: objective, measurable, quantifiable times, distances, and weights. Thousands of practice hours culminate in one race, one jump, one lap, one journey to the end of one balance beam, one barbell lift.
Did you know that table tennis is an Olympic sport and (2024: Breakdancing)? Here’s https://olympics.com/en/sports of Summer Olympic sports for the Paris Games.
According to olympics.com, “There is no specific age limit for taking part in the Olympic Games. This depends on each International Sports Federation and the rules it lays down for its sport.” In 2024, Zheng Haohao, a skateboarder from China is 11 years, 11 months, the youngest competitor, and sixty-nine-year-old Mary Janna, who is traveling from Australia to Paris as a standby in case of injury, is the oldest.
The average age is about 27, so from my point of view they’re mostly kids. All go to the Games with metallic dreams and National Anthem whispers.
But what about the ones who come in fourth or fifth or merely finish? No medal. No national anthem. No lucrative contract with Nike, UnderArmour, SpecialK.
Gym was always my worst subject. In seventh or eighth grade we were supposed to master lots of equipment. Lucky for me I had friends in the class. Friends who really made themselves useful by holding my hand on the balance beam, giving me a boost over the pummel horse and pushing me over the uneven parallel bars, more than once, to perform my “routine.” If you think it was a hoot, you’re right! Even I was laughing, making it even more impossible. My teacher was generous. She gave me a D because I showed up. I didn’t chicken out or complain. I finished.
Maybe I’m a little bit of a champion after all.
Maybe all those athletes who come in fourth, fifth, or even just finish are champions, too.
Maybe we all are.
In Alice Hoffman’s The Invisible Hour (Atria/Simon & Schuster, 2023), she wove her magic around a mother’s love, the “otherness” of fatherless babes, and the tragedy of falling in love with the “wrong” person. The time travel was handled deftly, but her heavy-handed descriptions of the importance of books and reading left me feeling that this was not her best work.
The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera (Levine Querido, 2021 Newbery Medal winner and the Pura Belpré Author Award winner) was recommended by my granddaughter. If a dystopian view of the world can shed a bit of hope, this book carries it off.
A few hundred scientists and their families are whisked off to a new planet when it’s discovered that Earth is in the direct path of a comet and will be destroyed. Petra, an almost 13-year-old who carries her grandmother’s stories with her, is the only one whose memories of Earth have not been destroyed.
--stay curious! (and move toward your goals)
from: Brambleheart: A Story About Finding Treasure
and the Unexpected Magic of Friendship
written and illustrated by Henry Cole
Kathrine Tegen Books, 2016
As I thought about this week’s post, I tried hard to think of something I consider myself to excel in or be outstanding at. Not grammar with that sentence!
I was not very successful with my piano lessons, although I gained a great appreciation for the instrument and a real love of Chopin, especially his preludes, waltzes, and other dances, the simple ones and the complex.
Although I can usually spit back a phone number (2024: this was true until my phone remembered them for me) and I add and subtract my checkbook in my head (mostly), numbers are not really my thing.
My daughters are both good cooks. I told my older daughter she must have a tongue in her brain that helps her think of ingredients that go well together. I don’t have that, but I can follow a recipe.
Common sense is not my forte, either. I do a lot of forehead slapping, you know, when all of a sudden some logical, elusive answer becomes crystal clear. I have lots of ideas, though.
I am not a champion athlete. You might remember I taught myself to roller skate with belts and pillows. And that ice-skating fiasco.
This week, lots of eyes will be on Rio de Janeiro. (2024: Paris) Kids, really, are participating for their chances of a lifetime to excel, to perform, to compete. Athletes, it’s said, love speed: objective, measurable, quantifiable times, distances, and weights. Thousands of practice hours culminate in one race, one jump, one lap, one journey to the end of one balance beam, one barbell lift.
Did you know that table tennis is an Olympic sport and (2024: Breakdancing)? Here’s https://olympics.com/en/sports of Summer Olympic sports for the Paris Games.
According to olympics.com, “There is no specific age limit for taking part in the Olympic Games. This depends on each International Sports Federation and the rules it lays down for its sport.” In 2024, Zheng Haohao, a skateboarder from China is 11 years, 11 months, the youngest competitor, and sixty-nine-year-old Mary Janna, who is traveling from Australia to Paris as a standby in case of injury, is the oldest.
The average age is about 27, so from my point of view they’re mostly kids. All go to the Games with metallic dreams and National Anthem whispers.
But what about the ones who come in fourth or fifth or merely finish? No medal. No national anthem. No lucrative contract with Nike, UnderArmour, SpecialK.
Gym was always my worst subject. In seventh or eighth grade we were supposed to master lots of equipment. Lucky for me I had friends in the class. Friends who really made themselves useful by holding my hand on the balance beam, giving me a boost over the pummel horse and pushing me over the uneven parallel bars, more than once, to perform my “routine.” If you think it was a hoot, you’re right! Even I was laughing, making it even more impossible. My teacher was generous. She gave me a D because I showed up. I didn’t chicken out or complain. I finished.
Maybe I’m a little bit of a champion after all.
Maybe all those athletes who come in fourth, fifth, or even just finish are champions, too.
Maybe we all are.
In Alice Hoffman’s The Invisible Hour (Atria/Simon & Schuster, 2023), she wove her magic around a mother’s love, the “otherness” of fatherless babes, and the tragedy of falling in love with the “wrong” person. The time travel was handled deftly, but her heavy-handed descriptions of the importance of books and reading left me feeling that this was not her best work.
The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera (Levine Querido, 2021 Newbery Medal winner and the Pura Belpré Author Award winner) was recommended by my granddaughter. If a dystopian view of the world can shed a bit of hope, this book carries it off.
A few hundred scientists and their families are whisked off to a new planet when it’s discovered that Earth is in the direct path of a comet and will be destroyed. Petra, an almost 13-year-old who carries her grandmother’s stories with her, is the only one whose memories of Earth have not been destroyed.
--stay curious! (and move toward your goals)
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