Even more firsts for 2012

First good teaching day of 2012: today

First lunch with a colleague of 2012: today

First day I cursed the cold of 2012: yesterday

First visit to church of 2012: today

First book read in 2012: Maphead by Ken Jennings . . . it is a blast to read

So might we finally prove Dr. King wrong

Pastor from church sent a link to an interesting blog about the future of church. You can read it here. If that author is right about number one, it'll finally disprove one of Dr. King's most interesting sayings, that Sunday morning is still the most segregated moment in America.

More importantly, if that author is right (and I think he is) we might be seeing a fundamental shift in the U.S. that really makes folly some Republican strategy of the last decade or so. I know that author didn't mean to get political, but, well, I'm a Social Studies teacher. Some time ago I posted that the Republican Party really needed to abandon social issues, especially same-sex marriage, if it wanted to remain viable in the long-run. The vigilance against illegal immigration also seems foolhardy in the long term. Younger Americans are simply more inclusive than any previous generation. Churches need to pick up on this. Politicians do, too.

More Firsts of 2012

First unique car driven: my brother's brand new Mazda 3 (seems to be quite a nice ride).

First cut of beef cooked from the 1/8 of a steer I bought in October: rump roast

First appliance fixed: vacuum cleaner

Firsts of 2012

Our church's new pastor encourages a one-week pause before establishing resolutions for 2012. Interesting idea. In that spirit, I wish to celebrate the following firsts for 2012:

First breakfast: bagel and cream cheese

First morning spent in: Alexandria, VA

First night in own bed, Jan. 1

First trash pick-up: on time (surprisingly, I should rethink that whole omission of the New Year tip)

First phone call: to mom

First meal out: at McDonald's in North East, MD

First of my children to get in trouble: Caroline (for unnecessarily pushing brother's buttons)

First of my children to get me to laugh: Caroline

First of my children to get up: Sam (but that wasn't really going to be close)

The annual obituaries

Newspapers' accounts of the famous and infamous lost in 2011 contain a lot of big names. I wonder if we'll look back on this past year as noteworthy in how we lost some fairly notable tyrants such as Osama bin Laden and Kim Jong Il. The Economist has a considerable amount of coverage in its most recent issue lamenting how Mr. Kim was afforded the privilege of dying a free man, labeling him the most despicable tyrant of modern times.

The most famous "good guy" I feel we lost was Harry Morgan who, as Colonel Potter, represented a pleasant father figure for me on television.

I might look back at 2011 as the year that killed two long-time pasttimes for me: television and sports. The introduction of an iPad and Kindle into the home, along with the revelation of Netflix streaming, sees me turning on the television less and less, at least for live entertainment. I might even pull the plug on pay tv in 2012 and decide to go over the air along with Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.

As for sports, the Penn State scandal has the potential of upending the megalomaniacal monstrosity that is big-time college sports. The crimes that occurred at PSU could have happened at one of any dozens of campuses in the country where coaches and programs are above the law and escape close journalistic scrutiny. We have seen the last of coaches in the ilk of JoePa, and in time we are going to see coaches and programs reined in.

College sports never meant much to me, I'm a casual observer. But pro sports took a back seat to more meaningful people and ways to spend time for me. I opened 2011 watching a miserable Eagles' playoff game during a family gathering, watching it to the exclusion of wonderful relatives I don't get to see too often. It dawned on me after that game how empty of an experience it was to watch it rather than talk with my uncle or aunt more. For the first time in more than a decade, I missed more Eagles games than I watched in 2011. It was a struggle to adopt this mindset, but I'm finding there are so many better things to do with a Sunday than watch them. As for the Phillies, I learned that a quick score check around 9:10 or so is enough to tell me whether the end of the game is worth watching, normally not. Time is better spent with my Kindle.

A Moment to Be Appreciative

My greatest anxiety a week ago was that my children would find their Christmas underwhelming. Sherry and I deliberately decided not to over-buy, and resisted some last minute impulses successfully. We had clued relatives in on good, safe bets for our two and decided to make the riskier purchases.

My anxiety only heightened Christmas Eve when I saw my son go to bed with a copy of the Lego catalog tucked hopefully beneath his pillow. Yikes! And I knew there wasn't a single Lego set from Santa (I'm not counting the Hero Factory sets which were a complete gamble).

The result: two kids perfectly happy and appreciative with what they did get.

I'm so fortunate to have those two.

Sherry and I have somehow figured out how to do Christmas in a relatively low stress way. We lazily eat a nice breakfast. The kids open a few gifts, play, open a few others. We normally have some extended family come on over - this year my folks and my brother's family - but don't overdo the meal. This year Christmas morning felt like it was only an hour long, and it seemed like our guests were only here for 45 minutes when, in fact, they were here for more like 4 hours!

Film and Teaching

To purposefully interrupt the monotony I started a cinematic adventure with my history students. We're watching The Searchers as a way of better understanding the West in American culture. It got me to thinking of my favorite films to watch with students. Here goes:

1) High Noon - I like using it mostly as an allegory for the foreign policy dilemmas of a superpower like the U.S. It's ironic to use a film meant as an allegory for the Red Scare to explain the Bush Doctrine.

2) 12 Angry Men - I look for any excuse I can find to show this to a group of students. Works great with nearly all types of Social Studies classes.

3) The Searchers - It's deep in ways that students have a hard time seeing, but if kids get it, they really get it.

4) The Best Years of Our Lives - I was shocked at how the last group of students who watched this with me understood that the film's most meaningful character isn't Homer but instead it's Fred.