I took my daughter to school this morning so my wife could sleep a little longer before going to work. Before we leave I offer to do stuff for her but she usually declines.
Today I carried out the waffle her mom toasted & set it on the dashboard.
She’s taught me all the short cuts to avoid the traffic at the junior high in our neighborhood.
We listen to her favorite station on the way to school while she eats her waffle & does her makeup in the visor mirror. I say things to her to let her know I’m glad to be with her. Sometimes we have conversations. If we don’t it’s OK.
She’s a junior in high school & will be gone sooner than I realize. Then I’ll give anything for twelve minutes in the car with her on an ordinary Thursday morning.
Today I carried out the waffle her mom toasted & set it on the dashboard.
She’s taught me all the short cuts to avoid the traffic at the junior high in our neighborhood.
We listen to her favorite station on the way to school while she eats her waffle & does her makeup in the visor mirror. I say things to her to let her know I’m glad to be with her. Sometimes we have conversations. If we don’t it’s OK.
She’s a junior in high school & will be gone sooner than I realize. Then I’ll give anything for twelve minutes in the car with her on an ordinary Thursday morning.
She’s the last one. We’ve fledged three others but after her our nest will be empty.
How did she get to be seventeen and so beautiful?
We know so little about each other’s interior worlds,
the vast and complex regions of emotion, memory and desire.
She struck me this way recently. She was “getting ready” in the mirror by our front door as I came home. I saw her through the sheer curtain.
When I came in I said, “Wow! I saw you through the window. You look so big!”
This did not have the effect I was going for.
I have since learned not to use this word to refer to any female older than, say, about six.
(I’ve also realized that “frizzy” is not the word of choice in describing her long, flowing, to-die-for blonde hair but that’s another story.)
We pull up to the school. She puts the finishing touches on her face and grabs her backpack.
I touch her on the shoulder and say something nice.
Then she’s out the door and I watch her go into the building.
I zip her makeup bag shut and pull away.
I usually switch the radio to NPR on the way home and did so today.
There was a story on Morning Edition by Susan Stanberg about Julius Shulman,
a 98-year-old architectural photographer.
(“Photographer Captures L.A.'s Vintage Homes” NPR Morning Edition March 26, 2009)
It was very interesting. Shulman’s photographs of Southern California homes are famous.
He took photos of Steven Spielberg’s home.
For $6,000 or more, Shulman will take pictures of your home.
How did she get to be seventeen and so beautiful?
We know so little about each other’s interior worlds,
the vast and complex regions of emotion, memory and desire.
She struck me this way recently. She was “getting ready” in the mirror by our front door as I came home. I saw her through the sheer curtain.
When I came in I said, “Wow! I saw you through the window. You look so big!”
This did not have the effect I was going for.
I have since learned not to use this word to refer to any female older than, say, about six.
(I’ve also realized that “frizzy” is not the word of choice in describing her long, flowing, to-die-for blonde hair but that’s another story.)
We pull up to the school. She puts the finishing touches on her face and grabs her backpack.
I touch her on the shoulder and say something nice.
Then she’s out the door and I watch her go into the building.
I zip her makeup bag shut and pull away.
I usually switch the radio to NPR on the way home and did so today.
There was a story on Morning Edition by Susan Stanberg about Julius Shulman,
a 98-year-old architectural photographer.
(“Photographer Captures L.A.'s Vintage Homes” NPR Morning Edition March 26, 2009)
It was very interesting. Shulman’s photographs of Southern California homes are famous.
He took photos of Steven Spielberg’s home.
For $6,000 or more, Shulman will take pictures of your home.
The story was about Shulman taking photographs of Shondell Spiegel’s home.
It described his method and style. At the end of the piece there was a quote from Shondell Spiegel that stood out to me so much that I scribbled some notes on a napkin so I could find it again. It interested me because I’m getting ready to teach a Sunday School class on parenting. I’m no expert on parenting, just experienced. We have a lot of couples with young children at our church and we think parenting is really important so we offer classes on it.
Anyway, Shondell Spiegel was reflecting on Shulman’s genius when she said this,
He makes you see what you take for granted. And we do that in our houses.
But she went further. For some reason I think she applied the lesson she learned from the photographer's images of her house and applied them to her home.
Spiegel continued, We do that in our marriages. We do that with our children.
He has ability to stop time and let you see it and to remember why you fell in love with it.
Interesting. I don’t know how or why Ms. Spiegel made the jump from her house to her home (marriage and children) but I really like what she said. She said she’s got this fantastic house but she takes it for granted. She doesn’t “see” it anymore.
She said paying Julius Shulman $6000 to photograph her house helped her remember why she fell in love with it.
Then she suggested that we can take our marriages and children for granted
and that we need to "stop time" and “see” them in order to remember why we love them.
That’s what I want my parenting class to do.
I want us to "stop time" and "see" our children and remember why we love them.
Maybe if I charged $6000…
It described his method and style. At the end of the piece there was a quote from Shondell Spiegel that stood out to me so much that I scribbled some notes on a napkin so I could find it again. It interested me because I’m getting ready to teach a Sunday School class on parenting. I’m no expert on parenting, just experienced. We have a lot of couples with young children at our church and we think parenting is really important so we offer classes on it.
Anyway, Shondell Spiegel was reflecting on Shulman’s genius when she said this,
He makes you see what you take for granted. And we do that in our houses.
But she went further. For some reason I think she applied the lesson she learned from the photographer's images of her house and applied them to her home.
Spiegel continued, We do that in our marriages. We do that with our children.
He has ability to stop time and let you see it and to remember why you fell in love with it.
Interesting. I don’t know how or why Ms. Spiegel made the jump from her house to her home (marriage and children) but I really like what she said. She said she’s got this fantastic house but she takes it for granted. She doesn’t “see” it anymore.
She said paying Julius Shulman $6000 to photograph her house helped her remember why she fell in love with it.
Then she suggested that we can take our marriages and children for granted
and that we need to "stop time" and “see” them in order to remember why we love them.
That’s what I want my parenting class to do.
I want us to "stop time" and "see" our children and remember why we love them.
Maybe if I charged $6000…
i wonder if shulman knows he incites such insight. maybe he does, hence the pricetag.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this. :)
ReplyDelete