King of Dupont

One of the benefits of having a spouse who never reads our family blog is that I can say just about whatever I want about him on here and trust he'll never know. On a day like today, that means I can brag. See that mean-wild look in his eyes in the pic above? That's cause he's tearing it up in the Dupont Forest 12k, which he won with a time of 44:05. (Second race in a row that he's won...yes, I have no shame in loving it!) Although he's still getting back into top racing shape, he's in pretty good shape right now, and he's enjoying the beautiful weather and the many chances to get out into it to enjoy a run with his buddies, or solo for that matter. You know your husband has the racing bug when: he runs twice in one day, the second time being through a thunder storm (don't worry mom, he didn't die); he takes his running clothes to work to run on lunch breaks, and takes them to church to run during the Sunday school hour; he says he'll be back soon and is then gone running for over two hours. The running bug's got him good. Welcome race season!

The above pic of Myles is at the UNCA labyrinth, a pretty beautiful space where some of us from church gathered with our kids this past week to run, skip, jump, and walk the labyrinth. Definitely deserves a second, more focused visit from Myles and me.

Myles Says: I've gotten into the habit of singing 3 songs with Myles before we go to bed...one of which is "Sanctuary," which always takes me back to a certain school gym in Letcher County (accompanied by Liz and her guitar, followed by stories of the precious puppies of Appalachia). Anyhow, Myles first listened to the 3 songs, and then began to lip-sync them. However, if he is off in his lip-syncing he insists I re-start the song...and this happens every song, every time. A sweet ritual, now perfunctory and frustratingly long. I finally had to draw the line, to much weeping and gnashing of teeth. When I asked Myles why he had to mouth the words, rather than just listen (or better yet, sing with me), he said, "Because I need to know these songs so I can sing them to my kids one day," in a very exasperated voice.

Myles has recovered nicely from his first scraped knee of the season, which was a pretty bad one (I gagged changing his bandages, as he wept and screamed with every bandaid pulled off). Good thing he's recovered since he had to hop on one leg for the first day of the injury, then was able to limp but missed a week of Playball and swim class. Perhaps worst, he refused to bathe, so we resorted to the old washcloth routine. However, I'm happy to report that somehow he went biking again (that's how he sustained his injury in the first place) the very next day.

This week I've been preoccupied and distraught over the Trayvon Martin tragedy. I had to work it into the sermon this morning, especially after seeing how it's affecting the larger community. As a mother myself, my heart just aches for his mom. Who could bear their child experiencing that kind of violent death, fueled by racism and hatred? We still have so far to go. I heard today that Ecumenical Advocacy Days had skittles and iced-tea (what Martin was carrying when he was shot) on their communion altar, and thought that quite fitting. This weekend I tore through the novel March, written by Geraldine Brooks, which is her version of what happened to Mr. March (of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women family) when he was off at war (Civil war). It was given to me by a friend about 5 years ago, and for some reason it lingered on my shelf. It was an amazing read, covering the horror of war and the mixed motives for the Civil War; what it looked like as slavery was upended in the South. The accounts of the treatment of those who were enslaved took my breath away. I've read a lot on the subject, but every time I'm horrified by the cruelty possible within the human heart; overwhelmed by the violence, hatred, and injustices that were so engrained in the life and soul of our nation. Racism just runs so deep. Anyhow, if you're the praying kind (or even if you're not), please do lift up Trayvon Martin's family this week and pray that justice will be done.