Persistence of Bouncing
Jul. 14th, 2009 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_pretentiousOne of the parks where Gareth and I like to play has a small basketball court. Today we saw a Chinese father and his two pre-teen kids try to figure out how to shoot hoops. Even I could tell it was an unfamiliar sport for them. Gareth swung in the baby swing and asked me all about what he saw.
G: Guy? Big kids?
Me: Yes, that father is trying to teach his kids to play basketball.
G: Bang bang boom!
Me: The ball bounced off the backboard. They're still trying.
G: More bang bang boom! Again!
Me: They have admirable persistence.
G: Abirabu pesisis?
Me: They have persistence. They persist. They don't give up. Like you when you learned to climb stairs.
G: They have pe'sis'ence of bouncing.
Me: They're bouncing their ball, yes.
G: They have a ball and pe'sis'ence of bouncing.
I have no idea whether he really knows what persistence is, but he's been enamored of his new phrase all day. So am I, of course.
It's been a good week for persistence of bouncing. I finally got back into my writing routine, after three weeks of heavy travel interspersed with dire family news knocked me off my game. All those days I didn't post to my blog, I was adding time I would ordinarily use on email and updates to my writing time, to make a big longhand rough draft push.
And, after a couple of weeks of nervewracking tests, it looks like my brother-in-law has a fighting chance against his illness. We are all very happy here in Averyland, especially because some of the test results on the way to this moment suggested there might be no chance at all. (Bang bang boom.) It'll be a dangerous year for him, and a strenuous year for all of us, even in the best case scenario. I expect to be in the DC area a lot to help out with my nieces. We will all need our persistence of bouncing.
G: Guy? Big kids?
Me: Yes, that father is trying to teach his kids to play basketball.
G: Bang bang boom!
Me: The ball bounced off the backboard. They're still trying.
G: More bang bang boom! Again!
Me: They have admirable persistence.
G: Abirabu pesisis?
Me: They have persistence. They persist. They don't give up. Like you when you learned to climb stairs.
G: They have pe'sis'ence of bouncing.
Me: They're bouncing their ball, yes.
G: They have a ball and pe'sis'ence of bouncing.
I have no idea whether he really knows what persistence is, but he's been enamored of his new phrase all day. So am I, of course.
It's been a good week for persistence of bouncing. I finally got back into my writing routine, after three weeks of heavy travel interspersed with dire family news knocked me off my game. All those days I didn't post to my blog, I was adding time I would ordinarily use on email and updates to my writing time, to make a big longhand rough draft push.
And, after a couple of weeks of nervewracking tests, it looks like my brother-in-law has a fighting chance against his illness. We are all very happy here in Averyland, especially because some of the test results on the way to this moment suggested there might be no chance at all. (Bang bang boom.) It'll be a dangerous year for him, and a strenuous year for all of us, even in the best case scenario. I expect to be in the DC area a lot to help out with my nieces. We will all need our persistence of bouncing.
