Sunday, June 12, 2011

Numbering Days

My friend Mark recently posted about his moderate, middle-aged ambition that "perhaps by 50 (and I still have a few years before then) I can know the canon of English poetry as well as any of my peers."

This got me thinking about my own countdown to 50, which doesn't feel to me like a matter of years, though it is, but a matter of days.

How many days? I checked. And without spilling the beans on my birthdate online, let's just say, it's about 900.

Of those, 78 are left in this summer, for me. (For my kids, it's only 63.)

So--what am I going to do with them? And, more important, how am I going to get my 15-year-old son to do something with his days, so that I don't go crazy watching him veg on Facebook and Fail Blog? Boy needs a project, but more than that, he needs to know that he needs a project--and that's something that I can't teach or tell him, anymore.

Summer updates, coming soon to a moribund blog near you!


3 comments:

Laura Vivanco said...

"Summer updates, coming soon to a moribund blog near you!"

I'm looking forward to them! I've been missing your updates, here and elsewhere, but I suppose that when your days are filled with end-of-term marking etc, there isn't much time for that kind of thing.

E. M. Selinger said...

Hi, Laura! Yes, it's been busy--and for a while there, my son's eye injury had me quite distracted. I look forward to catching up, here and elsewhere!

Anonymous said...

About getting 15 yo's motivated?

My mom thinks the answer is "other people"?

For instance, she got my brother to dress better by asking his girl friend at the time to do it.

Now? She talks to his wife.

It seems to work but I have this feeling that she was just lucky. I'm not sure that there is a universal application for her theory.

Good luck though.

C Anne F