Sunday Wrapup 11/13/2011

Until 11:00 yesterday morning I was prepared to be in a throng of young people at this time--probably between 30 and 40 of them, right here in our home. We were scheduled to take our turn at hosting the Sunday evening "singing." I always enjoy being with the young people, but the preparations are daunting when they must be done around the edges of away-from-home working hours, and solemn duties like grandbaby cuddling and attending winter Bible school at church. They are especially daunting for a housekeeper like me. Flylady would not be proud of my panic.

Deliverance came and grace was extended in the form of a snafu of some kind among the young people who do the scheduling for these and many other events. While Marian and Hiromi and I were busily racing around, getting ready here, our neighbors Willard and Sharon were also preparing--probably at a saner pace--to host the young people this evening. The singing was to double as a farewell for their son Aaron, who is about to leave for six months in SE Asia. Hannah and Judy saw the conflict emerging when I fortuitously called Judy to discuss some food amounts. Hannah caught wind of what I wanted and told her mom that they were told that the gathering would be at Willard and Sharon's house. They called the person in charge, who called here to make amends and finalize the plans.

I don't know all the details of how the double booking happened, but there was a recent hand-off of planning committee responsibilities, and the person now in charge has also had some other major planning and speaking duties recently. I suppose, as sometimes happens to me, reaching a decision about what makes sense morphed into a mistaken notion that everything was taken care of. We're on now for the singing in two weeks, right after Thanksgiving--really a much better time for me than now. The food preparation was not far enough along to be a problem. The plans and the food will keep just fine.

We'll hope for another Sunday in two weeks with the wind direction just right for avoiding a PS aroma. Yesterday was bad; today was good.

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Tristan and his mama came to church today. An admiring crowd of people was on hand to hold the new baby afterward. I didn't get a turn.

A consensus prevails that "he looks just like Shane." Dorcas, however, claims credit for his medium-light hair, his high hairline, and his cowlick.

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I wonder what the students would have thought if I had appeared in school last Friday with a garlic clove taped into my ear. I didn't seriously consider it, but the evening before, I was ready for some serious action to combat the painful earache I was feeling, so I did the garlic clove thing overnight. I also took Ibuprofen and some antibiotics purchased in a foreign country. I've done this once before, a bit guiltily, but I reason that I am abiding by both the letter and spirit of the law--at least when I put the best possible spin on the spirit of the law. No one in the US is selling the drug to me without a physician's prescription, and I am not abusing the drug by overuse. I really like not having to pay big bucks for a doctor to look into my ear and diagnose an earache, which I am perfectly capable of diagnosing without looking into my own ear. (It's probably a good thing that looking into one's own ear is not required.)

All day on Friday, my ear hurt whenever I had to open my mouth to eat or talk. I think the infection was possibly in the outer ear--or at least closer to the surface than it sometimes is. I could make it hurt by pressing any number of places around and on and in my ear. I still can, but now it itches madly too, so I think it's healing.

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Susanna, who demonstrated "working cattle" last week at school, served fresh-baked warm cookies and milk for everyone after school this week. She was on "E' privilege and baking cookies is allowed for such privileged students.

How's her skill set for well-roundedness?

This week was really stellar at school in the snack department, even without indulging at the snack bar out at the canner operation. On the same day Marsha brought mini-cheesecakes as a belated birthday treat, Andrew brought dozens of cookies and made popcorn for his birthday treat.

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At school Marvin is spearheading a drama event involving whoever volunteers to commit to the practice and work involved. Most of the students signed up.

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Joel and Hilda did hiking around Grand Canyon this week. It was their first pre-planned hiking-as-recreation activity, and they thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Mark Nissley had a topic during Bible school about brain development in teenagers, and how that affects their ability to ascertain risks and weigh consequences.

In short, he said that the frontal lobe is the region of the brain where all these things are processed. The brain, however, matures from back to front, beginning with the hippocampus, and progressing by forming additional connecting tissue between brain cells. The maturing process reaches and fully encompasses the frontal lobe around age 25.

Norma overheard someone at school the next day say that what Mark said wasn't very complimentary of teenagers. The student probably wasn't complaining about what Mark said so much as expressing chagrin at the realization of how much brain maturity is still lacking in teenagers.

Obeying parents as the Bible instructs children to do comes through as being wise for reasons many of us don't fully understand, and people under 25 are probably incapable of understanding it.

I know that some churches don't accept any ministerial candidate who is not at least 25. I doubt that the decision is based on brain research, but I can see why it makes sense.

Marriage? I'm not pushing for making 25 a minimum age for marriage, but I feel a little smug for having been older than that when I got married.

What else should be off-limits for people under 25? Driving? Just kidding, but I do wish I knew how to get across to young people the foolishness of thrill-seeking behind the wheel. I don't want to see a single young person I know injured or killed because of irresponsible driving. This really is an area where adults can well afford to nag, indoctrinate, enforce, restrict--however much is needed to keep young people safe. Regrettably, perhaps it does more for their own peace of mind than for bringing about changed behavior.

To be as convincing as we want to be, we also need confrontation with reality. Mark did this by recounting a first-hand experience. Their family hosted a small group of teenagers who came over together for an evening of volleyball several years ago when they still lived in another state. Mark caught on that someone had been driving very fast when the young people came, and he warned the owner of the car not to let a certain young man drive on the way home. I understood it to be the person who had done the fast driving. Mark didn't give a lot of details, but I believe the owner of the car ended up driving as they left, and, soon after, a terrible high speed one-car accident occurred in which three young people died.

No driving thrill is worth the risk of such consequences.