Scatterday Thoughts

Every September there is one day when everything seems to be happening, and that day this year was today. I had an 8 am appointment to meet someone for prayer, my daughter had a birthday party to go to (though NOT the same friend whose party she's gone to the past few years; someone ELSE moved in with a birthday party on the busiest day of the year), the 19th century historic site two blocks from us had their annual fall "Erntefest" with costumed craftspeople and tourguides, the Sewickley Academy had their annual Clotheseline Sale, and a co-worker had a party and ceremony to bless her new home. And it's Saturday, so I made breakfast (thankful for the fact it was an "Egg Day" and not a "Pancake Day") and we did our family trip to the Sewickley Library. In the crunch of events, I RSVP'd that we would NOT be attending my co-worker's party, and we ran out of time to make it to Erntefest (which was probably best, as it was raining and Boo has a bit of a cough). So the busiest day of the year wasn't as busy as it could have been with better weather, better health, and more to spend at the Sale...

I taught my second session of Fall Drama Camp on Tuesday. There was no other adult on hand to help me (though there was a guitar class down the hall), and things were a bit chaotic. I'm still finding it difficult to wrap my mind around this class--I enjoy it, and the kids seem to enjoy it, but a lot of the things I've done before in similar situations aren't working. Part of the problem is I'm used to working in theater with older kids or young adults, so I'm having to adjust and pitch things for a younger group of actors. But I think I'm probably also dealing with some levels of ADD in some of these kids, which is something new for me to try to tackle (both in teaching and in group dynamics). I'm trying to read up on the subject and make MORE adjustments to my goals and methods of teaching...

Praying at the high school this morning, I realized how totally out of touch I am with what is going on there. A decade ago, when I started working with the youth group at church, we had quite a number of kids who not only attended the high school, but who were all pretty active in band, theater, and other activities, so I had a pretty good idea from them on what was going on on campus. The youth in our church today are few in number, and the vast majority of them attend other schools. The two who do attend the local high school are both introverts, so even if I asked them directly, I don't know that I would get any clear sense of what life is like for the majority at Ambridge High...

Aside from the Drama Camp, I am not actively engaged in any outreach projects at the moment. There may be an Alpha Course in the Spring, and we may have a youth track to that I can be involved in, but we could not field enough volunteers to continue offering the KidzLife program, and what needs our teens have for a youth group seem to be being met by their Sunday school teachers. I've not been asked back to teach any classes for the Center for Hope, and I'm feeling a bit rudderless. My wife says God is giving me time to relax, be refreshed, and work ahead on some projects, but I'm having a tough time seeing where we're going from here...

We finally got around to getting a converter box for our TV. For years (since cable got pulled) the only channel we have received was ABC, with a lot of snowy static. As the only TV show we watched with any regularity was LOST, that worked out fine, but with the switch to Digital, we got nothing. So now we get CBS, NBC and something called RTV (which we'd never heard of, but airs reruns of REALLY old shows--the same ones that were in reruns when we were kids 40 years ago!). My goal is to find ABC before LOST starts its final season this winter...

In the meantime, we've been catching up on episodes we missed (most of Season 3), and that has been fun. I'm developing a theory that the entire show my be an adaptation of Archibald MacLeish's J.B., with Jacob and his Nemesis sitting in for Mr. Zuss and Nickles (who in turn stand in for God and Satan in the book of Job), observing human suffering and placing their bets on how it will all turn out. We shall see...

"Babies Are Happy..."

Last night my daughter asked me to draw a baby crawling. I did so (in my typical Disneyesque fashion), with a short-sleeved shirt, long pants and socks. Then she did her 7-year-old version (evolving from stick-figure to a beginning sense of mass and perspective), but when it came to clothing the crouching figure, she asked how to draw a diaper. Then she asked how to draw diapers by themselves, and did three of different sizes across the top of her drawing. She asked about the different kinds of diapers she had worn and then asked how spell "HUGGIES" and added that in large capitals at the bottom. She then informed us she was drawing a diaper ad, and asked what else an ad would have in it; I suggested she put a price in one corner and label the three diapers across the top "Large," "Medium" and "Small". Then she added other smiling baby faces around her full-figured baby and explained "Babies are happy when they wear Huggies!" I told her that was a great slogan ("What's a 'slogan'?") and she asked me to write it above her big "HUGGIES".

I've often thought I could have made a decent living on Madison Avenue (if I could only shed my conscience), but I attributed my fascination with advertising to certain teachers I had, especially in Jr. High, who stressed educating us as critics of media, and advertising in particular (we had to collect or journal examples we saw of "snob appeal," "sex appeal," "bait-and-switch", and other tactics). I thought I could be successful in the field because I could identify (and then master) the tricks.

My daughter, however, has largely been shielded from mass media. We don't have TV, rarely listen to radio, hardly ever purchase a newspaper, and what magazines we may have had subscriptions to have almost all lapsed. I'm not sure where she got the idea to create an ad, much less where she got her sense of layout, design, and her ease with summing up the whole appeal in such a snappy little saying.

I guess maybe it's not all "tricks" that can be learned. Partly it must be innate.