My Son the Graduate

My Son Charlie graduates from high school today.  Charlie was home schooled from birth to fifth grade. He was the 2nd born in our family.  When he was born my wife was already "playing" school with our 2 year old  and Big Dude (one of a multitude of nick names we saddled the poor kid with over the years)  was incorporated into their home school routine right along.  He went to public school in 6th grade, we were fortunate to home school him again for 7th grade and did his last 5 years of school in public school.

 

Cubist 

Charlie excelled in high school and we are very proud of his accomplishments.  But this is my blog not his, so let's talk about me.

I have had many roles in Charlie's life.  I was the principal of our home school.  I stayed at home when he was in first to fifth grade and was his main teacher.  I helped him learn to read.  I taught him how to ride a bike.  I've been his coach, his youth group leader for 6 years.  We have gone on two mission trips together and he has even been my co-worker at a local movie theatre.  

 

Athlete

Historian

Cannon Fodder

Our relationship has changed quite a bit over the years.  I've gone from his hero to the embarrassing guy with the bad puns.  This year has been a transition year as he prepares for whatever the next chapter of his life is going to be and I get use to the notion that he will be penning these chapters almost entirely on his own.  I've been trying to step back from a leadership role in his life to an advisory one.  Something I've been getting a little better at lately, mainly because I was doing it so very badly to begin with. 

Roller 

Before I end this post with some uncaptioned glimpses from over the  years, I will share  a hopeful anecdote. Over the past few years Charlie has taken up walking, running and cycling: 3 activities I've really enjoyed in my life.  Last Sunday, he went cycling with a friend from the youth group and they dropped by the house on a way to a local park to toss a frisbee around.  Frisbee is another thing I really enjoy, I walked out to the front yard to say hi and bye when Charlie invited me to come and play frisbee with them.  I'm crying even now as I recall how overwhelmed I was by the invitation.  I went and I had a great time and I think they did as well.  I hope this is just one of many activities that Charlie and I will enjoy together in the years to come.  Not only as father and son but as adults, and as friends.  

 

Meaningful (and civilized) dialogue between adherents of different worldviews

In  researching a piece for another one of my blogs I came upon this gem of a dialogue between Billy Graham and Woody Allen.



A little background, Woody Allen was for a long time one of my favorite playwrights, actors, writers and directors.  I love his intellectual yet self depreacating humor.  I still think that Crimes and Misdemeanors is  a modern masterpiece telling the story of the power of sin and the need for redemption.



Billy Graham became a hero of mine as my Christian faith emerged and grew.  His love for otChrist, his family and others has had adeep impact on my life and ministry.



When I was in college I got this crazy idea of hosting a talk show.  It was the late eighties and David Letterman with his viewr mail, stupid pet tricks and other goofiness was my inspiration.  I planned the show to be a hybrid between letterman and a faith based talk show like the 700 club.  I imagined  that my first gueat would be Billy Graham. On my show  I planned to intersperse regular questions with unusual ones.  So with Billy, I'd be like tell me about your crusades, then I'd follow it up with Do you fish?  How often do you fish?  That sort of thing.  This interview between Allen and Graham  has some of that spirit to it that I would have liked to bring to my own talk show.









I really enjoy the good humor they both bring to this conversation without abandoning their own  positions.  It's hard to think of the late 60's as a simpler time, however I think as far as public discourse goes this is so much better than the soundbites, barbs and gotchas that predominate these days.

Wordless Wednesday: Do Words in Pictures Count? #congraduationsCharlie

Click here to see more Wordless Wednesday at Comedy Plus.

Homeschool Argument

Yesterday morning I spent about an hour exploring other blogs from this years a to z blogging challenge.  One of the blogs I was looking at had a link to a blog hop called 6 sentence stories at a blog called Girlie on the Edge.  I had heard of all sorts of differnet story lengths but the concept still intrigued me.  So for fun, I jotted down a 6 sentence story and shared it with my family to mixed reviews.  The way the blog hop works is that each week a few days before the blog hop they give a prompt word.  You need to use the word somehow in the story (either as a word or as a subject or theme ). The word this week is right.  I wrote a quick story and will share it here now and link it to the blog hop on Thursday.

Homeschool Argument

"You may be right..."

"I am right."

"You may be right..."

"No, I am definitely right!"

'Stop interrupting me.  You may be writing out your math assignment tomorrow; Our computer isn't working."

To see more six sentence stories click here. 

State of the Blogs

The past few months I have been tweaking my 4 existing blogs with the intent of keeping them filled with content and not laying dormant in the basement of the alamo of the internet.  My 4 active blogs at this time are in oldest to youngest  Home School Dad which I have shortened to the initials HSD, Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports Blog, Dave Out Loud, and Random Acts of Roller.

I have decided to make HSD the flagship of the four blogs.  That is why directly under this post you can see links to the latest posts of the other 3 blogs.  To that end, periodically I will make a post of whats coming next in all of these blogs.  Consider this one of thos posts?

What Am I Working On?

HSD: Aside from this post I am not working on any posts on this blog at this time.  This week I hope to participate in Wordless Wednesday.  I have a couple of ideas for the feuture Muzak Lessons I started last week and may start working on one of those soon.

Random Acts: I am currently working on a piece that combines politics and Christianity.  Instead of trying to write it all at one time, I usyally only work at it for 15 to 30 minutes at a time.  part of this is because of my schedule at work, the other reason is that I am trying to be much more deliberate about my writing at this time.  I think taking my time to get my thoughts together and working without a deadline may aid that.

Crazy Uncle Daves: I just posted ther for the first time in over a year.  This blog has never been a real time sports blog and I'd really like it to be.  Unfortunately there are no real time sports at this surreal time .  So until then I'll be trying to find a pace and contentent  for posting that matches my time and inclinations.

Dave Out Loud.  I am working on my first "live" segment of Dave out Loud in some time.  I'll be taking the random takes idea I mentioned in my last post and running with it.

What Am I Thinking About?

I have been thinking about a podcast.  I'm not sure if I'll ever pull the trigger on such a thing.  However  do expect a piece in Random Acts in the near future of 10 people I'd love to interview on a podcast.

Two weeks ago I participated in Wordless Wednesday for the first time in years.  Last week I participated from 2 of my blogs.  I am thinking about participating from all 4 on the same week sometime.  I want to get a few more posts at Crazy Uncle and Dave Out Loud before I attempt such a feat.

What am I Planning?

I participated in the A to Z challenge this year at Random Acts.  I need to work on an index page of my involvement and gave myself the month of May off from doing that.  Here is my index page from my  a to z challened last year.  In June I plan to put up this year's index page.

I also  have big plans for the a to z challenge for next year.  There will need to be quite a  bit of behind the scenes planning for it.  I shall begin that work in earnest come June.

That's just a snippet of what to expect over the next few weeks and months.