My Fortune Cookie

If you promise someone something, keep it.

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Sah-weet.

Fall Already?!

This week has been surprisingly cool and Fall is in the air. The only problem?: It's AUGUST! This year Summer didn't come and go. It skipped coming and simply went! No hot days by the pool in Ohio this year. Bizarre. That being said, I do love fall. Steve was joking about making a fire last night. (I think he should have.) I experimented in the kitchen and created poached pears in a spiced hazelnut syrup. Yum! Now even our house smells like Fall.

"The Niecies"

This past weekend we were in Washington D.C. for a family reunion of my Mom's side of the family. It was wonderful to see my family, and to get to know my great-grandparents better. The only thing missing was my two little brothers, Tonya, Amber, Erica and their families. We missed you guys! The following are pictures of my nieces. Oh my heavens! They are so cute! Man, do we have great genes.

Stacey and Celeste

New baby Sophia

Madeline

Camille and Madeline

Abby, Brent, and Shanda!

Shanda, Brent, and Abby are in Cincinnati for a summer internship and came up to Oberlin to visit us! It was wonderful to see them. I wish I had a better picture of Abby. I think I was too busy holding her to get any pictures. They happened to be in town for the Oberlin Auto Show. People from all over the area drive their spruced up antique cars and line Main Street. We also went to Black River Cafe for the best raspberry pancakes in the world! We are so excited that they are going to be in Pittsburgh for the next little while. It's only a hop, skip and a jump away. Thanks for coming!

 

 

 

 

Cheesecake Factory

We had been away for many weeks, and Kj and Tom had been away for many weeks, and we were dying to get together. What better place to meet than Cheesecake Factory?! It was wonderful to see them again. We never tire of talking with them and being with them. We hope they always live nearby. Check out our desserts! Yummy.

 

It's amazing how many pictures I have of Kj with a large piece of chocolate cake. ;)

 

 

Will Tom be able to finish?

 

Since I didn't order a chocolate dessert, I had to order a hot chocolate to go with it. :)

The following day we had dinner at their house. All the work they are doing on the house is paying off. It's looking beautiful! Tom made homemade lasagne and Kj made a nectarine and blueberry buckle. It was delicious! Even better than Cheesecake Factory.

Chloe and Schoepfle's

After watching our house for us this summer, we had the pleasure of spending a few days with Chloe before left Oberlin to embark on her own marriage adventure.  I feel very blessed to have had that time with her. She is an amazing person both on the inside and how she conducts her life on the outside. We are so happy for her and Ben. They are going to be quite the power couple!  Chloe, Steve, and I went for a mid-summer visit at Schleopfle Garden, a favorite pastime. 

 

 

 

Back to Fake Life

We've been back in Ohio for several weeks now. I've realized that I've been calling life here "real life," but I think that traveling is "real life" and this is "fake life." We've gotten a lot done in our few weeks of fake life. Steve's book is officially out of his hands and will be hot off the press October 1st. Wahoo! We've been busy in the garden and the front bed finally looks lovely. Only eight more to go. :-p. We've also been able to visit with a lot of friends which has been really wonderful. We ate our first Somalian food last night at Charity's house. Bananas on spaghetti! Apparently it's a cultural favorite. Shanda, Brent, and Abby are coming tonight to visit for a day. We can't wait to see them! Steve caught a bat and released it into the wild. I've been busy on the job hunt and am hoping to get a particular job I applied for this week. I put up ads for my violin studio and hope that picks up soon. I joined a local gym and have been four times this week! I found some great sales and tried not to spend too much money. We've both been busy with church callings. Did you know it costs $.40 for each metal clasp on those manilla envelopes? We've made several batches of chocolate chip cookies and chocolate milkshakes. All in all, it's been a full fake life.

Fat Fish Blue

We went out to dinner with our friends Chloe and Ben tonight to Fat Fish Blue. It's a blues club in Cleveland with live music Thursday through Sunday. Steve and I tried to go when we were on our honeymoon, but it was mid-week, late, and in the middle of winter, so they were closing up early. I'm glad we made it back. We had a really good time. The guitarist in the band was excellent, and we ate a lot of soul food: fried chicken and gravy, grits, pulled pork, blackened catfish, cornbread . . . . Yum! Thanks Ben and Chole! We're going to miss you.

Dignity

This summer I've had the privilege of visiting Boston area. I walked the Lexington-Concord road and walked over the North Bridge where the Revolutionary War began. I read pages from the diaries of Paul Revere, George Washington, and John Adams. I visited Quincy, where the Adams' lived and gained great respect for John Quincy Adams. I thought a lot about what a president should be, what it meant then to be qualified for the presidency, and what it means now.

In yesterday's NYT David Brooks wrote an interesting related article:

In Search of Dignity

When George Washington was a young man, he copied out a list of 110 “Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.” Some of the rules in his list dealt with the niceties of going to a dinner party or meeting somebody on the street.

“Lean not upon anyone,” was one of the rules. “Read no letter, books or papers in company,” was another. “If any one come to speak to you while you are sitting, stand up,” was a third.

But, as the biographer Richard Brookhiser has noted, these rules, which Washington derived from a 16th-century guidebook, were not just etiquette tips. They were designed to improve inner morals by shaping the outward man. Washington took them very seriously. He worked hard to follow them. Throughout his life, he remained acutely conscious of his own rectitude.

In so doing, he turned himself into a new kind of hero. He wasn’t primarily a military hero or a political hero. As the historian Gordon Wood has written, “Washington became a great man and was acclaimed as a classical hero because of the way he conducted himself during times of temptation. It was his moral character that set him off from other men.”

Washington absorbed, and later came to personify what you might call the dignity code. The code was based on the same premise as the nation’s Constitution — that human beings are flawed creatures who live in constant peril of falling into disasters caused by their own passions. Artificial systems have to be created to balance and restrain their desires.

The dignity code commanded its followers to be disinterested — to endeavor to put national interests above personal interests. It commanded its followers to be reticent — to never degrade intimate emotions by parading them in public. It also commanded its followers to be dispassionate — to distrust rashness, zealotry, fury and political enthusiasm.

Remnants of the dignity code lasted for decades. For most of American history, politicians did not publicly campaign for president. It was thought that the act of publicly promoting oneself was ruinously corrupting. For most of American history, memoirists passed over the intimacies of private life. Even in the 19th century, people were appalled that journalists might pollute a wedding by covering it in the press.

Today, Americans still lavishly admire people who are naturally dignified, whether they are in sports (Joe DiMaggio and Tom Landry), entertainment (Lauren Bacall and Tom Hanks) or politics (Ronald Reagan and Martin Luther King Jr.).

But the dignity code itself has been completely obliterated. The rules that guided Washington and generations of people after him are simply gone.

We can all list the causes of its demise. First, there is capitalism. We are all encouraged to become managers of our own brand, to do self-promoting end zone dances to broadcast our own talents. Second, there is the cult of naturalism. We are all encouraged to discard artifice and repression and to instead liberate our own feelings. Third, there is charismatic evangelism with its penchant for public confession. Fourth, there is radical egalitarianism and its hostility to aristocratic manners.

The old dignity code has not survived modern life. The costs of its demise are there for all to see. Every week there are new scandals featuring people who simply do not know how to act. For example, during the first few weeks of summer, three stories have dominated public conversation, and each one exemplifies another branch of indignity.

First, there was Mark Sanford’s press conference. Here was a guy utterly lacking in any sense of reticence, who was given to rambling self-exposure even in his moment of disgrace. Then there was the death of Michael Jackson and the discussion of his life. Here was a guy who was apparently untouched by any pressure to live according to the rules and restraints of adulthood. Then there was Sarah Palin’s press conference. Here was a woman who aspires to a high public role but is unfamiliar with the traits of equipoise and constancy, which are the sources of authority and trust.

In each of these events, one sees people who simply have no social norms to guide them as they try to navigate the currents of their own passions.

Americans still admire dignity. But the word has become unmoored from any larger set of rules or ethical system.

But it’s not right to end on a note of cultural pessimism because there is the fact of President Obama. Whatever policy differences people may have with him, we can all agree that he exemplifies reticence, dispassion and the other traits associated with dignity. The cultural effects of his presidency are not yet clear, but they may surpass his policy impact. He may revitalize the concept of dignity for a new generation and embody a new set of rules for self-mastery.

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To add to the list of odd things heard in churches, we heard the Harry Potter theme tonight. Sweet.