therealhoarse

There is a certain metaphysical energy that accumulates in places where people have lived. It isn’t some woo-woo celestial vibration or spiritual haunting. It is a residue of sorts left behind from the lives once lived there. It is physical and observable. We see it, process it, and are influenced by it. Mostly without being aware that any one of those is even a thing that occurs.

My son had a soccer tournament this weekend. It was his first real competition with a new team and a long time coming. If you read my earlier piece, The Tryout, you know all about that. In reality, these little tournaments are a crap shoot. A team’s chances are highly dependent on the draw. Teams aren’t evenly matched. Sometimes you’re on the lucky side of that and sometimes you aren’t. Regardless, it was a chance for him to compete again after a year and a half off and it was a chance to play with his new team and get a sense of how the season ahead might go.

Part III: The damage done and a midlightening

And walking around the sundial

Note: This is the second of what has become an accidental three-part series. If you read my last post, you’ve already read the first. That one was about seeing things from our kids’ perspective. This one is about the real subtext beneath that: trying to be a good parent. The third, which I will post tomorrow, is about me having a moment of not acting like one.

This post came to exist. So there’s that. Writing was done and finished and posted. This week, that feels like something. Most days, the getting to having written is relatively painless. The getting started isn’t onerous. The act of writing itself is unlabored. There is no friction in the process between having thought through a post to having written it. And, when finished, I feel a relaxed satisfaction as if I had just eaten a good meal.

Part I: The ways we see

While second-guessing yourself every day forever

Part II: The flaws in our design

The parenting toolbox and picking the right tool

A few quick notes and updates