It's bee
n a while since I've posted - I guess "life" has been occupying me a lot lately and not affording me the time I might otherwise use to log my thoughts and philosophies here. But I had an experience last night that compelled me to sit down at the computer this morning and express some things that were happily dancing around in my head.As a separatee (and probably soon to be divorcee), I live apart from my wife and children - I have two boys, ages 11 and 9. I have them with me for visitation every other weekend, with this being one of those weekends. I look forward to these visits with such anticipation. :)
On a normal Friday night with the boys, I would pick them up from their mom, then swing by the local pizza restaurant (called Bella Luna - I love that name, btw) and get a delicious pizza pie to take out and then eat while winding down in front of some T.V. at my apartment. But last night, my dear Conor boy had his first ever school dance. He is a sixth grader, and although I remember having my first "crush" on a girl when I was in 6th grade, Conor has confessed to me that he doesn't yet like girls. And so, I imagined the dance to be, well, not anything more than just hanging out with all of his friends, hearing some great music, and doing a bit of jumping around every now and then. And in speaking to him when I picked him up afterward, it turned out that that was more or less what it was. Still, it was delightful to see Conor "growing up" in this fashion. :)
But the most beautiful part of the night came with my other son Brett. While Conor was at his dance, Brett and I had some time to ourselves, so instead of the customary pizza, I suggested sushi at the local Japanese restaurant. Brett and Conor both love sushi, so I knew that Brett would be fine with this idea. And so, we popped in to Yukhi, ordered sushi to take out, and then ran an errand while the order was being readied.
Upon our return to the restaurant to pick up our food, we discovered that we didn't have enough time to go home and eat before having to go back out to pick up Conor from his dance. And the food was already bagged up, so we didn't really wanna ask them to set us up at a table to eat there either. So what did we do? We improvised. :) I said "Brett, do you wanna just eat in the car?" He was game, so we went out into the parking lot, I started up the car and got the heat going, turned on the car's dome light, and then joined Brett in the back seat.
Upon opening up the food bag, I discovered that they had only given us one set of chopsticks. So now what, do we go back inside and ask for another set? I decided not to, and instead, suggested to Brett that we share the chopsticks and take turns eating. He was more than happy to do so, and so this was how we dined. :) Brett and I, sitting in the back seat of my car, taking turns eating our rainbow rolls and sipping the miso soup that the restaurant had put in a styrofoam cup for us. At least three times Brett said to me "This is fun, Dad." I couldn't have been more tickled. :)
After finishing up our very enjoyable meal together - and one that was truly shared - we proceeded to Conor's school to pick him up from the dance. Brett and I were really in a great state of bonding as we waited together outside the school, anxiously waiting for Conor to appear as we shivered in the sub-freezing temperature of this early January night in Washingtonville. Conor had a soft joy on his face as he emerged through the school's doors, and as Brett and I swapped stories with Conor about our respective evenings, we all three carried this beautiful mood all the way to bed time.
With experiences like this, I'm reminded that it's the small things in life that really matter. And Friday, January 8, 2010 was a most precious example of this for me.
Viva la vida, my friends, and take joy in all the small things....
11 comments:
What a nice story. I was smiling all the time I read it. Honestly! So glad you shared, and I hope (know) writing it gave you sore cheeks from all the grins. Wonderful.
I've been where you are, and know firsthand the feelings. Never mind the particulars, but there was a time when my two sons and I were in a similar custody situation, and the time with them was so very precious. (It still is, but in a different way.) Anyway, my son Cory and I used to have to wait about 45 minutes every day for his brother to be dismissed from middle school. Through that entire school year (no matter the temperature), that was our time, and we usually spent it in the car playing cribbage. Sometimes we'd go for walks at the nature park near the school. (One time we walked the trails after a big snow. I remember that the snow was higher than the bench seats. We both found it amusing to squat into the benches, our knees up to our chins.)
I'm sure your story conjured many memories for your readers. What a pleasant bit of sweetness.
Blessings to you and your boys,
Christine
Thanks, Christine (fka Ananji).
I actually wrote the story in my head while still laying in bed after I awoke, and it did make me grin to write it. :) I don't know if my Brett and your Cory are similar in their nature, but it's cute to know that my story resonated with you.
What a great story, TeeJay.
Thanks, Snowbrush. It was a memorable evening. :)
As you can probably surmise, I've kind of abandoned this blog. I am writing in a few other places right now, and unfortunately for those who are bored with the subject, the writing is mostly about running.
Anyway, if you're interested, here are those links.
http://trailtodd.wordpress.com
http://www.examiner.com/trail-running-7-in-new-york/todd-jennings
I'm sorry to hear that you only write about running now. I came over to your blog because I watched you get flamed on another blog, although you seemed to me to have behaved intelligently, kindly, and articulately. Other than having presented another way of looking at the subject under discussion, you did nothing that could have remotely aroused such anger. Why, then, two or three women were so mad at you puzzled me, so I came here. I still don't know.
Snowbrush, I think what you saw was something that may have been waiting to happen for quite a while. I know the other two ladies in that other thread personally (meaning 'in" person), and based on the intensity of the reaction and some other circumstances that you were not privy to, I may have been in someone's rifle scope, with them awaiting an opportunity to shoot.
My remarks in the other thread were opinionated, yes, but so were everybody's. Whether they were especially inflammatory or not, they were perceived that way by one or two people, so I can't do anything about that. All I can do is move on, which I have.
As you've obviously seen, my life philosophy is about simplicity, and I feel that bombarding our senses with all the negativity of the media is a recipe for spiritual disaster. In my own life, I try very hard to insulate myself from all things that bring dis-ease. Last week was a challenge for me, seeing everybody going ga-ga about the Anthony triaal outcome. Apparently most of the nation had been following it every day for weeks. I consider myself fortunate to have been keep out of the info chain. Until last week, that is. Oh, well...
I do occassionally write about philosophical things on my Trail Todd (http://trailtodd.wordpress.com) blog. It might be worth a look every now and then. ;)
Anyway, thanks for visting me. I'm glad that you find the media spiritually intrusive. It gives us a nice common denominator. Thich Nhat Hanh would be happy, too. :)
"I feel that bombarding our senses with all the negativity of the media is a recipe for spiritual disaster."
Since starting medical marijuana, I've gone from 12 hours of news per day to 12 hours of music per day. I don't even miss the news; I just wonder why I ever listened to so much of it because it tends to be a hodgepodge of human interest stories combined with information concerning truly horrific situations that impact my life little if at all, and which I can do little or nothing about--unless you count feeling cynical and hopeless, of course.
P.S. "Snowbrush, I think what you saw was something that may have been waiting to happen for quite a while."
Which doesn't excuse it having happened when and how it did. All I took away from those people's mean-spirited behavior was that, jeez, I had better watch what I say on this blog unless I want a seemingly cohesive clique to drag me over the coals. In other words, when people act that way, they're saying something about themselves that isn't soon forgotten.
"so much of it because it tends to....impact my life little if at all, and which I can do little or nothing about..."
This is precisely how I see it. But there are those who feel quite the opposite. They feel that, the events that took place in Egypt a few months ago, for instance, impact them greatly, so they need to tune in every day for hours so as to "be informed." I'd like to think that there are better, more relevant things to be informed about. Things that - as I was tryign to say to Deb and the others - impact our day to day lives.
All I see when I observe people poring over sensationalistic news events is just a higher form of gossip. It has to stop if we, as a species, are going to move on to something greater.
It's also true that even if a situation is important, a person doesn't need to know every detail all along the way. For example, who will win the Republican primary for president. As for Egypt in particular, I have no idea why the general population would consider it important to their lives, at least in the short-term, although one never knows where a situation might lead.
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