Day 234

It boggles my mind that the same people who think my marriage is immoral voted for a man who has had multiple wives and raped women. It’s disconcerting that the same people who cry about abortion and argue that no child should be harmed have no problem with a President who ripped kids away from their parents and stuffed them in cages. It’s beyond comprehension that people who allegedly love Christ and worship the Bible can support a man who lies incessantly and through his lies killed 240,000 Americans. What would Jesus do? My guess is he’s sitting up in heaven crying at the way Americans have twisted his words and misrepresented his message. Love your neighbor! Well, we don’t see much of that from the Republican Party — do we? I will never understand how nearly half the American population voted for a man who lies, who wishes to strip them of health care, who puts the wealth of Wall Street before the well-being of the average American, and who speaks so vulgarly about women. We have a history plagued with hate and discrimination. But instead of confronting it and trying to make amends and move forward, we have embraced the evil and called it Great. America, I’m disappointed.

Today — if my son were attending school — would have been a day off. In New Jersey, today and tomorrow are the days set aside for the big Teacher Convention. There was no convention this year, but the days were already on the calendar so teachers and students had off. I debated with myself about whether I should give my son the day, but if I had, he’d have wanted to watch television all day and that was not an acceptable option. In a non-pandemic world, we could have taken day trips but out here we’re too far from mountains to go hiking and other activities are closed or unsafe due to the virus that is on the rise once again. So I decided, instead of a full day of class, we’d take a break from our usual work and begin a research project. As you know, science is my weakness. I’ve been worried since September that my lack of science knowledge will negatively impact my son for the rest of his life. But what I lack in science knowledge I make up for in research and writing skills. Instead of dwelling on what I can’t do, I figure it might be best to shift my focus. He loves animals, and he was reading a book about the Serengeti, so I on the spur of the moment, I told him to pick an animal. Of course my son never picks the obvious, he always has to select something obscure. Therefore, instead of a wildebeest or a cheetah or anything else I’ve ever heard of, he opted to study the rock hyrax. Nope, I won’t say anything more about them. I’ll wait until he writes the paper and then I’ll share it so you can learn all about these critters from him.

Anyway, as expected he grumbled and complained all morning. He didn’t want to do research. At one point, he threw down the article he was reading, pinched his eyebrows together and said, “And what makes you think you know anything about research or that you can teach me something I don’t know?” I paused, biting my lip as I tried to figure out if I most wanted to laugh or scream. For two years that was my job. I taught college kids how to write research papers. And I’ve written one or two in my life — one was even published in an academic journal. But he was beyond the point of listening, so I simply walked away. When I returned he had begrudgingly read and summarized one of the articles.  A small victory.

Since it was a beautiful and warm afternoon, we had lunch at the beach. Then we spent a couple of hours practicing taekwondo and playing with the video camera, taking turns recording each other. At the beach there are wooden beams — I’ve no idea what their intended purpose is — that my son loves to climb on. He practices his kicks on them which always makes me nervous. But today he upped his game. Grabbing his staff, he decided to do the entire staff form while balancing on the beam. He did it, without falling. I was greatly impressed. When he finished, he said it was my turn. I took the challenge. I’m not nearly as graceful as he is, nor as agile — my body is much older and far more damaged — but I did it. It wasn’t pretty, but I completed it. I think my son was surprised. He didn’t think this old woman had it in her.

When I got home, an exciting email was waiting in my in-box. A recent essay I’d written about homeschooling my son was accepted for publication by one of the editors of the Blue Nib. I’ve been so stressed and anxious the last few days, it was wonderful to have something to smile about.