Well, That Shut My Mouth

For some reason, I woke up with the phrase, "too good to be true" on my mind. "Too good to be true"? What in the world? Where did that phrase come from? If it's good, can it not be true?

Yesterday while at Trader Joe's the lovely young cashier asked what I was doing for the evening. I made some lame responses, like "cooking dinner" and "reading." He said, "Just marinating? Cool." Is that what I actually said?

Recently, I decided I needed to work on getting the education that I was deprived of as a child in the public school system. So I am studying Latin (Kiernan, with a Classics minor from Hillsdale, is my teacher); Greek through CLRC; and the Apprenticeship with CiRCE.

Through these studies, I realized something. Reading Latin, Greek, Socrates, and David Hicks shuts your mouth.

I wake up contemplating the real meanings of words. I'm more conscious of a sentence.

I remember that I have a blog, but I'm hesitant to write now because I've had my mouth shut. I feel more the responsibility to say things correctly, to say things well. I'm so much more aware of my lack.

That's what a classical education does. It make you aware of your lack. It humbles you. It shuts your mouth.

Occasionally, I look on my daughter's Facebook page and read all the comments. Some of those people need to have their mouths shut.

I'm not the one to decide who those particular people are, of course, although I have my opinions. :-) My point is that if we all were given a classical education, more people would be thoughtful and controlled in what they are saying.

When my girls were in high school I did not require a lot of "expressing" of what they were learning. For years and years it probably looked like we weren't really doing much around here because I didn't require them to produce much. It's only been since they've gone to college that all of those words and ideas from their classical education have begun to show outwardly.

It takes a lot longer to get a classical education (a lifetime!) and even longer for it to show its fruit, but I'd trade my get-the-basics education (reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic) for it any day.

And it shuts your mouth for a while.

The Death of Death by Scott Cairns

Put fear aside. Now

that He has entered

into death on our behalf,

all who live

no longer die

as men once died.

That ephemeral occasion

has met its utter end,

As seeds cast to the earth, we

will not perish,

but like those seeds

shall rise again -- the shroud

of death itself having been

burst to tatters

by love's immensity. *

"The crux of their 'courage and optimism' was to make the body the center of their attention, turning their back on the Greek notion that the soul is the essence of personhood. Not so, the medieval held: it is the body...And we do desire it, sensibly or not so sensibly. Having been given the vision of a God whose care for us is so heartbrokenly thorough that he became one of us, suffering what we suffer, dying as we do, to show us that even what we fear most has been conquered by a love we are called to show one another, we can't help but hope that it is true and try to stake our lives on that hope. Our faith tells us that we have been baptized into Christ's death and the hope of resurrection.'For you have died,' Colossians tells us, 'and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.' (3:3-4.) John Garvey, Death and the Rest of Our Life, pg. 87-88.

This excerpt was in our church bulletin today. I loved it.

I found the above passage so interesting. It's revealing of a culture to see beliefs about the spiritual and the physical, and which idea is most dominant in a given time. Thanks to Progressivism, we live in a time when people don't even believe in the existence of a soul! This early on caused me to care deeply about the soul. I wanted to work with children and I knew that the soul would be a major focus of anything I did with children. But in the church, I saw an opposite problem: a disparaging of matter, of the physical. This is a rejection of all that Christ is. He was physical before time began.

'And He said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, "Have you any food here?" So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence." ~Luke 24:38-43.

*from Love's Immensity, Mystics on the Endless Life by Scott Cairns, pg. 14.

A Mother's Touch

This is a beautiful illustration of a mother's (and a father's) love.

I'm slightly annoyed by the phrases used: "a medical miracle" and "there may actually be a good grounding in science for what seemed like a miracle."

Science said he was dead. A human mother said let me touch him, love him.

Basil and Thyme and Tomatoes

Jared's kitchen garden was a complete success this year. He grew 5 or 6 types of herbs which we dried in our dehydrator. Now my pantry is full of our favorite and most frequently used herbs. He also provided us with some of the best-tasting tomatoes and peppers. Yum.

He also learned to respect the hard work of the farmer!

Show and Tell

I decided to enroll Bryna in Classical Conversations this year. The group meets for 3 hours on Friday mornings. Being in 6th grade, it will be her last chance to have accountability in memorizing the history timeline and material from five other subjects. She is enjoying it and I'm thankful she gets this chance. Another thing the students do every week is give a presentation in front of their class. I was a bit put off when I found out on the first day that she would give one every single week! But Bryna didn't seem to be put off. She enthusiastically prepared her speech. (It was on Rehoboam and Jeroboam. I'm not sure what inspired that, but anyway...) Because I was in Texas, I didn't get to see her give her presentation, but she tells me it was great fun. :-)

When I first started homeschooling, many of the magazines and books for homeschoolers suggested that the children share what they were learning with their grandparents. The idea was that it gave the homeschooled student an opportunity to have a bit of a classroom experience in which he or she could give a speech, do an experiment as if at a science fair, or explain how to make something. This teaches them to develop poise and keep their heads while standing in front of others! This also gives the child and grandparent something to share together. My children always loved doing this sort of thing.

I've observed something though. Some grandparents, I think, question the motives of the homeschool parent or child. It seems to me they are suspected of "showing off," being prideful, or bragging. I don't understand the bent toward thinking the worst of someone rather than the best.

Well, Kiernan is in Kansas this weekend for a friend's wedding, and Walt is flying in tomorrow afternoon. I haven't seen Walt for two weeks! Yikes! I miss him.

By the way, I love Skype. I've had two or three great conversations with Jillian since she's been at UD. And we can see each other's faces! It's great. Wish we'd done it while Kiernan was in Michigan. I'm missing my girls tonight.