5 Quick Things #281 🪴
graffiti, digital detoxes, conversions, & educating for life
Hey there,
It's the time of year when everything starts piling up in my role as a teacher, but this time it feels extra because I've also got a senior graduating. Parents are in charge of the graduation ceremony at our co-op and it'll be quite the fête, complete with taco trucks and post-ceremony dancing, but in the meantime, oy! is it quite the feat to plan with also the typical end-of-the-school-year stuff. Last night I also sent our class' annual literary magazine to the printer, and now we get to rehearse presenting a few stories to their fellow students and parents. Our class does it old-school radio show style, and it's quite fun, but it indeed takes practice. Oh, and prom is tonight. …Thankfully, the bulk of my work involves taking a few photos before the kid drives off and has her evening with friends.
We'll be done with all this rigamarole in a few weeks, and then I'll be back to writing, gardening, and no longer going hither and yon, this way and that all week. I see a pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel, and for that I'm grateful.
How has your week been?
5 Quick Things ☕️
1. As someone with a future college freshman currently in the house, I found this idea fascinating — treat students like future parents, not just future employees. What would it look like culturally if more universities taught holistically, emphasizing a young adult’s whole self? I know my public university experience would have been pretty different.
2. I’ve never heard of this young Dutch thinker1, but I appreciated her interview here that charts her (and her dad’s) recent journey from being a lifelong Protestant to a new Catholic (it’s everywhere these days!). I completely understood her experience of deep-diving Peter Kreeft’s videos on YouTube — that seems to do it for lots of us.
3. I often feel like a fuddy-duddy Luddite whenever I talk about our increased awareness of the dangers of screens, but the more we talk about it, the more we acknowledge reality. I loved this piece, as intense as it is, and it’s a good connection to last week’s podcast episode2. Worth bookmarking and revisiting.
4. Phew, could I relate to this one (even as — maybe especially as? — a parent of older kids): “But while I was stressing away I also ignored the obvious: that while I was piling up activities and subjects so that my kids could have a great education, in reality they were already getting one.”
5. And finally, delight in this back-and-forth between a graffiti artist and the local authorities.
Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚
When the Church Was Young: Voices of the Early Fathers, by Marcellino D'Ambrosio
Quotable 💬
“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”
— Margaret Atwood #
Are You Team Cat or Dog? 🐱🐶
I’m actually a fan of both, but in a specific animal-by-animal case. For example, I’m hardcore Team Ginny all the way, but I’m not necessarily Team All Dogs, All the Time No Matter What. And I do love our super affectionate cat, Violet, even though she sits on me at genuinely the most inopportune time3.
Find this week’s poll here.
Quick Links 🔗
Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔
What’s something you assume to be true that may, in fact, might not be true?
Have a good one,
- Tsh
p.s. Here I am, continuing to share some of my all-time favorite tweets.
Just like everyone on all sides of the political aisles, linking to something unrelated to someone’s politics doesn’t mean I agree — or disagree — with everything that person believes. Let’s not degrade ourselves with the lack of critical thinking or graciousness that’s pervasive in our age.
Which more than a few of you are telling me it’s rocking your world! I’m glad. Me too.
Ironically in asking this question, our cat and dog got into a fight this week that actually caused a minor injury for the first time…