A time of pleasant distractions

Although I’m a man of carefully-honed habits, I am occasionally dragged from my hermithood routines, and shoved into “the real world”, or at least the real world as it exists for most of you. My daughter’s visit from Seattle, a big birthday party by my other daughter for both her sons, the Olympics, and even a clogged kitchen sink, all contributed to my “normalcy” over the past couple of weeks.

Going out to eat, which I almost never do, seems to be compulsory when people get together socially and for no other reason. Where you ate, with whom, seem to be the “events” of today’s world. I suspect small-town newspapers cover those events, e.g. “Mabel and John Blair dined out with Jim and Harriet Yoder at the new Chat-and-Chew cafe on Thursday evening”. For the record, I recently dined at Leeann Chin’s, Perkins, and Curran’s.

The birthday party was again an unbelievably creative effort by my daughter for her sons (it’s the 2nd annual).  With her magic, she kept a dozen kids entertained for hours, while about the same number of adults chatted and watched in amazement as their kids had fun without them. She even managed to produce involvement between adults and kids (just enough, not too much). The party was Star Wars themed, and thoroughly so, right down to 8 homemade cakes spelling out STAR WARS. The party lasted for hours, but the preparatory work was more akin to preparing for the RNC visit to St. Paul. It’s hard for me to imagine, but even I had a great time at the party.

Having been an Olympics fan for many decades, I can no longer resist watching. I’m continually amazed that what amazed me 20 or 30 years ago pales by comparison with what current athletes are doing. As usual, I wonder whether these young folks have permanently warped their lives to achieve such feats. As always, the old ABC Wide World of Sports opening returns to mind… the Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat. Also as always, I grieve for those athletes who compete on teams. In individual competitions, failure hurts only yourself, and victory is yours alone to savor, but not so in team competitions. One lovely young American gymnast had two falls in the team finals that may have dropped her team from a gold medal to silver. Regardless of her years of hard training, and remarkable feats that got them close to gold, she will probably be remembered for those two falls. That’s a cruel load for a young girl to carry.

So, perhaps my routine will return now, but such distractions are pleasant, and remind me that even a hermit has to peek out of his cave now and again.