Blowing In the Wind

The answer, my friend is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in the wind....

-Bob Dylan

Weather is putting the finishing touches on its portrait of autumn and changing the canvas to begin painting the dreariness of winter over the past week in Murfreesboro. We have gone through 3 stages of weather since I woke up for work this morning- cool and sunny turned to misty and breezy this afternoon, which has evolved into pouring rain and heavy winds into the night. This evening, the winds have been swirling around with thoughts of turning over trash cans at every home. Sting's lyric explains it best on a night like tonight: The hounds of winter are howling in the wind. Howling is a great use of personification for the wind. As hard as it is blowing tonight, it moans through each small crack between the windows and doorframes.

Gabe and I were having a lot of fun tonight catching up on some of what is turning out to be one of his favorite new shows: Mythbusters. The wacky things these guys do make him laugh and we make bets before we watch the experiments as to weather the myth will be confirmed, plausible or "busted." Later, we watched Clash of the Dinosaurs, which is a new documentary series that explains the design of different dinosaurs from physical and mental aspects. Finally, it was bedtime, which is when the winds started howling the most.

It was quite blustery as Gabe laid down for bed. I turned on his iPod and set his playlist entitled, "Sleeptime III," and Ringo Starr begins to croon (as much as he could), "Good Night." Gabe starts to worry about the noise and begins to feel a bit scared of sleeping amongst the noise beyond the walls. Trying to ease his mind and help him rest for the night, I tell him the same story he has heard dozens of times in the past: The Three Little Pigs. At the end of the story, we both come to the conclusion that the only house the wolf did not blow over was the one built with bricks. Since our house was made with bricks, our house will not fall down either.

This is truly the first moment in his life in which he has shown the dichotomy between the his amazing intellect and reasoning and immediately thereafter, showing childlike naivety which steals your heart.

After hearing the story and realizing our house was made of bricks, the paused for a moment and remarked, "but Mom's house is made of wood..." After calming his restless energy, I went back into the room to let him know I was taking down the welcome flag on near the porch, only to hear him whimpering. I asked him if he's okay and with tears in his eyes, he says that he was praying for all the non-brick houses, "so they don't fall down." Putting him to bed once more, he asks, "Our house won't fall down because of the bricks, but what about the windows, since they are glass?" I was completely dumbfounded. I simply had no more answers for him tonight. He then said the most adorable thing of the past several months: "Hey, Dad. The glass won't break because the blinds will protect it, right?" All I could do is smile, kiss his head, and tell him is is absolutely right.

What a great evening, which I owe to my son. Evenings like these make the irritations and monotony of the day's events worthwhile.

This Used To Be My Playground

Madonna's hit single is quite appropriate for this blog post...

For the past couple of weeks, Gabe and I have been going out in the backyard to practice hitting baseballs while there is still a bit of daylight left. He is turning into such a good hitter that he has now hit two balls over the rightfield fence (into my neighbor's backyard and more recently one over the leftfield fence (into the empty lot behind us). He is also starting to try to hit the ball from the right side of the plate and looks pretty good doing so. Baseball season is still 6 months away, but we are trying to retain the skills we developed last year.

On Saturday, the weather in Murfreesboro was beautiful. Bright and sunny, there was a soft breeze and the sun was warm on the skin. Gabe and I decided that we would go practice at a baseball field to practice hitting, fielding and catching. We had all of our gear in the car and headed to the ball field close to the house. Unfortunately, they have put a chain link fence around the entire premises and used padlocks to keep people off the field. We went to several other fields and found ourselves on the outside looking in on each field that we saw. We finally gave up on our search and played in a field beside 8 locked ball fields.

When I was a kid, this was not an issue. Most of the time, I would play baseball with several others in the middle of the street by bouncing a tennis ball in lieu of a pitcher. The tennis ball wouldn't break windows, so it was always the safe play. Yet there were still many occasions where the kids in the neighborhood would go to the park and play baseball after breakfast only to return as required by the streetlights, which was the third parent that told a child to get home on a summer evening.

What a disheartening world we live in for children today. Children have less time during a school day to play, exercise, and have fun in PE because we are pushing more academics. Most parents will no longer allow their children to play out of sight like generations past. Moreover, kids no longer play in sports in front of the house like we did either. Most children don't even have a playground in their own neighborhood because the developer's greed requires them to build 4 more houses built to maximize their profits. Other locations that have baseball fields are so afraid that a child will be hurt and a lawsuit will be filed for negligence.

I felt so horrible that Gabriel and I could not find a baseball field to play in this weekend. It is very unfortuntate that we cannot find a suitable place to practice ground balls on the infield dirt. Heck- I would have been happy finding a backstop in the middle of a field so that we would have to chase all of the passed balls that missed Gabe's bat. The children of our current generation have so many things that we did not have: electronic gadgets, video games, and portable DVD players. They don't have the things that help boys grow into men: open spaces to ride bikes and most improtantly, baseball fields.

Baseball fields are where boys learn the most important things to become men. Boys learn how to practice and play hard even if they get bumps and bruises along the way. They learn responsibility for their actions. They learn how to communicate with teammates and play as a member of a team. They learn victory is a reward worth all the time practicing. They learn that as long as they perform their best, they can be proud of their effort in defeat. They learn that each boy wins and loses as a team, not by the actions or faults of a single individual.

I guess for now, Gabe and I will have to continue playing baseball in our back yard. At least I'll know that he is learning the rules of manhood that schools don't have time to teach and our communities are not offering to our children.

Meet Virginia

In less than 48 hours, I will be returning back to the house I grew up in for quite possibly the last time. It will be quite strange to leave the only house that I truly remember. All of the memories that I have would the least thing I carry out of the house.

It has been an amazing relationship between that house and I. The both look completely than the first time we met. It was a brick front with compressed board side and back with a sloping back yard into a small creek. There were no trees in front. The kitchen was cramped and it also had a dining room and living room combination that lead into the foyer and den. It only had 3 small bedrooms and 1 bathroom to share. The hall ended at my bedroom door and my parents door was directly in front of mine.

I was a 4 year-old kid that loved to entertain and perform for anyone that would be willing to watch. I learned to ride a two-wheel bike in front and played basketball on the goal at the edge of the driveway. I met the school bus for the first time at the edge of the driveway.

The house grew into a 4 bedroom, 2 bath home with an extended kitchen, an office transformed from a living room, and a greenhouse window as I grew into a kid who broke the same window in the front with a baseball. Trees were planted in the front yard and would do my homework in my bedroom after school.

As time passed, the house started showing its age in different ways. The linoleum and carpet were upgraded and the trees in front were removed as I left to enlist in the Air Force. We hardly recognize each other anymore. The faux wood walls are now being replaced for sheet rock walls as I have replaced my earring for a salt and pepper goatee.

We often cross paths over the years, reminiscing on the good times we shared. This time, we have a lot of catching up to do. I will miss the old girl. It was the first house that Gabriel ever stayed in when we came to Virginia. The street in front of the house was both my field of dreams for baseball and the gridiron of our touch football games. The memories will always be fond but when the time comes to cross over the threshold for the last time, It will be like losing a member of the family.

I can't wait to see the old girl and will thankfully have my wish request to pay my respects...

See many of you soon!

m