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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jack Clarke who wrote (6156)	1/13/1998 8:10:00 PM
From: Jacques Chitte	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

>argue chemistry< >wipes out< Oh Jack, arguing or any form of contest was most assuredly not my intention! I was telling more of a beer story, without the benefit of actual beer. I have a bad habit of sorta humming contentedly along, tugging on bootstraps of ever-farther-cantilevered tangents of esoteric humor, thinking I'm making Perfect Sense. And cackling at my ethereal many-leveled wit. Every so often, one of my real friends, a large number of whom seem to illuminate this particular tide pool of SI, lets me know that I'm being Totally Incomprehensible. (Parenthetic note: Believe it or not, I achieve this state entirely without resorting to dangerous drugs.) A common and really confidence-robbing side effect of this is that I [am told that I] sometime come across as acerbic or even arrogant. Bummer. That is so far from my intentions, I get periodically insecure. Then again, I do often have the redemption experience where I say something semi-normal, and one of my friends will E-mail a mirthful complaint of having exhaled soda onto her keyboard. I babble. In short: Sorry if I came across as trying to win or something. Here's a complimentary "You're right; I'm wrong" card, redeemable anytime.

To: Jack Clarke who wrote (6156)	1/18/1998 7:25:00 PM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

JAck, I'm threadnapping you from Grammar where we could wander far afield in the education discussion. Since Janice is here too, I decided to move us back here! Also I hadn't realized that you had a son the same age as CW-and a swimmer. Is he a junior? Is he also looking at UVa? Did he stop swimming because of the time demands? It's a grueling sport and I get so angry when football players deride it as wimpy or make fun of Speedos or respond in a typically Neanderthal way. We have found it a wonderful sport for young people because it offers the opportunity for personal bests and individual achievement as well as competition against others. And unlike many other sports, he'll still have his knees when he's done. An interesting article in the Dallas paper Friday-- A father started a homeschool basketball team so that his son could play. He arranged games with private schools and other homeschool teams. Sounds ok, right? But his "child" is 20 years old, has graduated from high school (although the father says since he never accepted a diploma, he really hasn't!!!!)and the extent of his "home-schooling" is that he's allegedly studying to take the SATs. The reason for all this is because he hurt his ankle and was unable to play his senior year and his father says it's his "right" to play another year. Because homeschoolers are not under the governance of whatever powers control high school sports, he makes his own rules. Sometimes he doesn't show up for games, leaving schools waiting. He's obviously doing this for one reason only. I guess I wonder what his son is learning...is it that you can get what you want if you go after it? Is he learning that life can be manipulated, that we don't have to think about the impact of our actions on others, only on our own goals? Do we as parents shape the world to fit our child's wants or do we help him learn that sometimes life just hurts? CW's autumn swim season was demolished by mono-it was tough, but helping him learn to deal with disappointment is part of our job, isn't it? Or is it positive to learn that when there's a will, there's a way! What is all this loose talk about "rights"? Why does he have a right to play because he was unable to one year? Maybe I missed that one in school, "...right to life, liberty and basketball." It does have a ring to it...