At this moment Paddy is somewhere over Africa
The reason why I haven't been updating this blog so often lately is that every time I look at my inbox and my work calendar, I start imagining people waiting for email replies and translations, who might see from this blog that I am at the computer, but not actually working or replying to emails. So I apologize to everyone who might still be waiting to hear from me, but since I am not being very efficient this evening anyway, it seemed a good time to update the blog again.
Today Paddy left with his class from school to spend two weeks in South Africa. For days, at least, I have been thinking that a trip like this would be so much easier to cope with and prepare for without sarcastic comments – or at least not quite so many of them and not in response to every single question. When we got to school this morning, where the class was meeting to get on the bus to go to the airport in Munich, I had the impression that a majority of the parents there had much the same feeling about it. It was a bit disconcerting that everyone noticed and commented that Patrick had the smallest suitcase by far, even though Patrick had also packed everything he needed into this same suitcase by himself when he went to New York for two weeks. I asked Peter if Patrick was defying the laws of physics with his packing practices, but Peter just said calmly, "It's the cow factor", which I found reassuring. It seems that Patrick and his physics teacher recently had an interesting discussion about the theory of relativity and cows, which at least Patrick and (hopefully) the teacher were quite happy with. However, anyone who wants to know the details about how the theory of relativity involves cows will have to ask Patrick. The last physics class I took was in college, at the end of which I was convinced that there is actually no reason to expect solid objects to remain solid objects in the same form, because the molecules could simply rearrange themselves at any time and without warning. I remember I found this idea quite fascinating and have lived happily with it ever since. I'm sure the cow factor in the theory of relativity is at least equally reasonable.
In my role as Patrick's mother, I also thought it was not unreasonable to question what he was packing, and what he might have forgotten or not thought of. This was especially the case following the discovery of a surprising number of socks that have been hiding out in Patrick's suitcase since his trip to New York last summer. When Patrick complained that he had no socks left and set out into town to buy new socks, I didn't question the veracity of the complaint. With the Sock Wars still continuing among the three men in my household, mysterious disappearances are not uncommon. At some point during the summer I attempted to get the situation under control by dumping all the socks I could find anywhere in the house onto a large pile and sorted them ruthlessly. I discarded every sock without an unequivocally matching partner, every sock with a hole anywhere, and every sock that appeared to be left over from the 1970s. The matching pairs of socks that were left were neatly divided into three groups according to certain attributes (even numbers of black socks for all three, grey and beige socks for Peter, stripes and polka dots for Patrick, and anything that looked ridiculous for Christopher). The Sock Wars died down a bit after that, but certainly did not end. Finding a secret stash of socks in Patrick's suitcase suggested two possibilities: either Patrick has assumed a more insidious role in the Sock Wars than had previously been the case, or he does not have quite the control over his material world that he claims to have. Since he still asserts innocent victimhood in the Sock Wars, I had no choice but to persist in questioning what he might have forgotten to pack or not thought of taking.
When we got to school, he realized that he had forgotten his sunglasses. Hopefully that will be all that shows up missing in the next two weeks. Then all I have to think about are his gibes, which became increasingly frequent over the past week, about what irresponsible parents we are to send our poor youngest child to the second most dangerous country in the world ...
Today Paddy left with his class from school to spend two weeks in South Africa. For days, at least, I have been thinking that a trip like this would be so much easier to cope with and prepare for without sarcastic comments – or at least not quite so many of them and not in response to every single question. When we got to school this morning, where the class was meeting to get on the bus to go to the airport in Munich, I had the impression that a majority of the parents there had much the same feeling about it. It was a bit disconcerting that everyone noticed and commented that Patrick had the smallest suitcase by far, even though Patrick had also packed everything he needed into this same suitcase by himself when he went to New York for two weeks. I asked Peter if Patrick was defying the laws of physics with his packing practices, but Peter just said calmly, "It's the cow factor", which I found reassuring. It seems that Patrick and his physics teacher recently had an interesting discussion about the theory of relativity and cows, which at least Patrick and (hopefully) the teacher were quite happy with. However, anyone who wants to know the details about how the theory of relativity involves cows will have to ask Patrick. The last physics class I took was in college, at the end of which I was convinced that there is actually no reason to expect solid objects to remain solid objects in the same form, because the molecules could simply rearrange themselves at any time and without warning. I remember I found this idea quite fascinating and have lived happily with it ever since. I'm sure the cow factor in the theory of relativity is at least equally reasonable.
In my role as Patrick's mother, I also thought it was not unreasonable to question what he was packing, and what he might have forgotten or not thought of. This was especially the case following the discovery of a surprising number of socks that have been hiding out in Patrick's suitcase since his trip to New York last summer. When Patrick complained that he had no socks left and set out into town to buy new socks, I didn't question the veracity of the complaint. With the Sock Wars still continuing among the three men in my household, mysterious disappearances are not uncommon. At some point during the summer I attempted to get the situation under control by dumping all the socks I could find anywhere in the house onto a large pile and sorted them ruthlessly. I discarded every sock without an unequivocally matching partner, every sock with a hole anywhere, and every sock that appeared to be left over from the 1970s. The matching pairs of socks that were left were neatly divided into three groups according to certain attributes (even numbers of black socks for all three, grey and beige socks for Peter, stripes and polka dots for Patrick, and anything that looked ridiculous for Christopher). The Sock Wars died down a bit after that, but certainly did not end. Finding a secret stash of socks in Patrick's suitcase suggested two possibilities: either Patrick has assumed a more insidious role in the Sock Wars than had previously been the case, or he does not have quite the control over his material world that he claims to have. Since he still asserts innocent victimhood in the Sock Wars, I had no choice but to persist in questioning what he might have forgotten to pack or not thought of taking.
When we got to school, he realized that he had forgotten his sunglasses. Hopefully that will be all that shows up missing in the next two weeks. Then all I have to think about are his gibes, which became increasingly frequent over the past week, about what irresponsible parents we are to send our poor youngest child to the second most dangerous country in the world ...
posted by Aileen at Sunday, October 08, 2006
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