Music Family

We have weighed in on the music side as a family, partly owing to Carolyn's upbringing - mother sang weekly in the Sweet Adeline's barbershop group, dad's master chorale work in a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony forms a powerful memory (C almost weekly requested "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee" at our Minneapolis pre-Wed night, Bible study hymn sing).

So, despite the boys' natural athletic interests, music plus church plus academics will probably make them less culturally American, ie a family culture revolving around sports.

M & J at their spring recital. Michael opened the recital. His love of performance really came through.

The breakthrough was Jack, however, who can really play now.

We're a little unsure how smoothly Suzuki will move to Switzerland, but we'll try. Lausanne has a music conservatory and opera - unthinkable for a town that size in the States - and Switzerland has a high place for the arts, so we're hopeful.

This year had a very entertaining group number: "boom-whackers"!

Next came Michael's choir concerts and Heritage Festival competition - both very satisfying experiences for child and parents. The choir direction and music selection is high quality, always aiming to enculturate the children with serious chorale traditions.

One venue was Ventura's Community Presbyterian - a beautiful space with murals and CA Spanish architecture.

Michael exhibited nervous embarrassment, which I can't quite figure out, given his natural ham approach to life.

The Heritage Festival awarded the choir a gold! Well done and

off to the Magic Kingdom for rides. Elle joined us on Sat for one of our last times together before the summer splits us apart for a year.

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The discipline and deferral of pleasure involved in learning a musical instrument is daunting for everyone, but the pay-off is tremendous; the child's joy and energy are bridled. With classical Christian education, there is a lot of bridling going on, so we are hopeful for its ultimate fruit, too, not only for informed custody of a tradition, but the shaping of a soul's pleasure.

In search of a well-rounded, educational project, desire is being rehabilitated these days, eg James Smith's look at liturgy and the emotional life, philosophically critiquing the lack of formation in evangelical higher education in its pursuit of institutional status in a competitive market:
or Alan Jacobs' strategy for returning to reading via enjoyment, countering the traditional Great Books approach on the ethical life and moral high ground of the classics (remember Allan Bloom's Closing of the American Mind?:
and, of all things, a rediscovery of puritan heavyweights, such as John Owen - typically known for classic treatment on sin - who writes on the subjective experience of the Trinity and the love of the Father among His children:

"Consider the company they keep: it is with the Father -
who so glorious?
The merchandise they trade in, it is love -
what so precious?"
J. Owen.

GRC's book study a year ago on this was a complete revelation.

In sum, the life of the mind - as well as the pleasures of the heart & body - now appear as different attempts at getting at the same reality.

Spring in Conejo

It's been a cool, relatively wet spring with pockets of beautiful weather, as on Mother's Day. Carolyn weaves arts & crafts through holidays and curriculum; the boys happily return the effort:
One tremendous gift of family life are the occasions - a calendar of events mostly unique to each family, adjoining the feast days of the church to give shape to days which, otherwise, run full-steam ahead on an economic logic at odds with human or divinely ordered time.

One thing I really anticipate in Switzerland is living in a setting where all these calendars (solar, harvest, theological, family, school) more or less powerfully align, at least formally.

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Beacon Hill honored Grandparents last Friday morning; we all descended.

Our boys only have one surviving grandpa and he is out-of-state, so our children joined other groups for interactive sessions. This great-grandma only spoke Spanish, so lots of cultural exchange going on here.

Michael at an unguarded moment during the assembly:

The Santa Monica Aquarium was a great find, as was Bay Cities Deli, where I found the most comprehensive selection of Italian imports,

such as freshly made Dove Cake (4 kinds!) for Easter. The prepackaged boxes, btw, seem to drop in quality much more so than, say, their Christmas counterpart, panetone.

Apparently only the English speaking world, for some historical glitch, uses the term, Easter, to mark the Resurrection of the Savior, apparently naming an ancient, pagan goddess (given the eggs and bunnies, is this surprising?). Some believers (eg at GRC) have switched to "Resurrection Day," but that just doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

Prepared a crown roast of lamb this year, only catching the symbolism of the paschal lamb crowned as a mockery - seems tighter as a Good Friday ritual:

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We made a quick stop to the Conejo Valley Days fair, near the TO Library, for some rides, such as the ferris wheel:

and this stomach-churning (highest portable version of this ride), which our thrillseeker son loved. Nascar instincts. Fun linked to, on some level, feeling out-of-control, helpless and, ultimately, baiting death:

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Took the boys to a nearby breakfast joint run by Greeks - good quality food at decent prices. Can't think what our home life would be if M & J didn't enjoy food!

Then a rare hike up the TO hills, retracing steps taken 2 years ago. Michael wanted to play the storymaking game we played on the return journey, each person adding a line to a tale. Recycling memories & the value of repetition - even at 8.

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After a Sunday lunch in Santa Paula with a family from church, I led the children to the local river bed where they threw rocks and just got dirty.
The children of GRC seem less parentally managed, ie more willing to let them just go, explore, accepting the consequences. Given my exact opposite orientation, I think it's usually a healthy antidote. Then again, I quit college & left LA for L'Abri and didn't look back, not grasping the life-pattern I was disturbing.

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Ojai is a western CA town and valley, where Carolyn arranged a beautiful tenure celebration party at the Ranch House:The Japanese bridge leading to a bamboo shelter. Ojai is a tiny artist colony of sorts; local notable, John Nava, designed the large scale tapestries hung in Our Lady of Angels Cathedral downtown.

Bart's Books, an outdoor used bookstore, has become a favorite spot.

Overtaking an actual residence and grounds, the different sections surround the former kitchen where I found, appropriately, cookbooks:

such as, Rosa Beranbaum's Cake Bible.

So, our lives are full of events these days, including last night's final AWANA program. The dedication of the staff - over many years - is humbling and I see some of that volunteerism pouring into Beacon Hill, which has become, kinda, our AWANA? M & J were recognized, as every child is, but didn't receive ribbons or Baskin & Robbins certificates because this year, they basically just showed-up.

My childhood was not as specialized, my gifts - whatever they are - not as developed. There is a generation of us, now adults, holding jobs and also trying to figure out what we're good at, I suppose.