May 22, 2000
DOWN HOME:
They count down days; he marks passing years
___Our girls have been counting down the days until the end of school for several weeks now.
___You know how it goes: You kinda-sorta get the feeling school isn't too far from being over for the summer. So, you ask one of your kids, "How long 'til school's out?"
___You get a precise answer. "Fourteen days, six hours and, ummm, let me see, ... 27 minutes."
MARV KNOX
Editor
___Never mind if kids have had trouble with math all year long. They sure know how to count down days, hours and minutes by the end of May.
___Lindsay and Molly, our 10th and seventh graders, think memory couldn't possibly reach back that far, but I recall what it was like to await the end of school.
___Back in the olden days, the space program was a big deal. And during that last week of school, I always felt like an astronaut perched in the capsule on top of a huge rocket, ready to blast off into unexplored territories.
___I eagerly anticipated leisurely visits to my grandparents' homes, camping in the mountains, church "fellowships" on long evenings, baseball games, making ice cream, trips to the swimming pool, fishing in stock tanks, riding my bike in the park, picnics at the lake. TV wasn't such a big deal, because all we had was reruns. But everything else about summer was special. As Mary Poppins would've said, "Practically perfect in every way."
___Years later, I've seen the excitement and expectation building in my own daughters. They don't do all the same things I did as a kid--partly due to the times, quite a bit due to the fact they're girls and I was a guy--but summer still looms as a perfect panacea, the idyllic abode of well-tanned teens.
___They have a hard time imagining it now, but in not too many weeks, they'll start saying things like, "I'm bored" and "I miss my friends" and "How long until school starts?"
___Singer Beth Nielson Chapman wrote a song in which she remembered the summers of her youth, and how long they seemed, and how she thought they'd never end.
___I remember that feeling, too. But now I know the span from school bell to school bell is just a glimmer.
___And that reminds me: While my girls have been counting down the days until school's out, I've been counting down the months and years until they hear that last bell, and then the strains of "Pomp and Circumstance" on graduation day.
___Like summers, the childhood of your children twinkles brightly but flashes away like fireworks on the Fourth of July.
___Children and summers are gifts from God. Enjoy them both in the coming weeks. And take time to pay attention to the wonders your kids see during their season of "freedom." This, too, shall pass. But it is beautiful.
___
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