The Siblings Lamkendlov

Hey girl!

You are my favorite sister, you know.  And it goes both ways, the thought that we take those closest to us to much for granted.  We should talk more.  And be inspired to hug our kids more often.  As they grow older and more teenagish and tweenagish, I even find that it works easier to say, "this is from you aunt and uncles!"

Sorry to hear about your friend’s brother, and yes, I did think a little about my own mortality yesterday.  Not so much the heart but the back, but I am okay after all.  In fact, not only did I shovel my whole driveway — a shorter driveway than the Griffith one, but a good thirty five feet anyway, and of course 21" deep —but I also pulled a night shift into Thursday morning at our locals PADS facility that had me moving things and cleaning up.  I could not have done this a year ago.

I am copying Dan and Josh on this.  Dan recently had a challenge to Josh and me to publish something before we turned 50.  He’s called it Karamazov/Woebegone Productions, I suppose with allusions to both our fraternity and our Minnesotaness, but hey, Dan, we can be more Illinoisan and less sexist and agist about this, can’t we?  How about the Siblings Lamkendlov?  And instead of 50, which some of us are still quite far away from (although, sadly, not so far from 39) why not just call it a 5 year plan?  Mom noted that you, Anne, have entered the blogosphere — give us the link!

Dan’s idea is to encourage each other to share our inspirations.  He has been writing short stories and songs, but he also supposes we could, at some level, publish movie reviews and exegeses and Scrabble tips and literature theories.  And why not?  We haven’t really talked about this much more than Dan throwing the idea out there, but maybe we should.

For my own part, I have had a number of projects over the last few years (not just bird poems) that have never gone beyond my own bookshelf.  I also rediscovered some stuff recently — diaries, school papers, stories, poems — that I had written 20 years ago, some of which is, I think, worth sharing more broadly.  I am attaching an excerpt from my journal that year, a few days’ worth of thoughts about prayer.  This may be too personal for non-siblings to care about, but then there are phrases in here that seem to stick with me lately, and maybe it is time for them to do more than just rattle around in my boxcar of a brain.  Tell me, brothers and sister, what you think.

Meanwhile, I have set aside movie reviewing, although I just watched Das Weisse Band, a 2009 German film that I whole-heartedly recommend (all at once it is a whodunnit that never solves itself, a film where the kids all have names and the parents do not, a consideration of what led up to World War I and the Nazi generation and a cause to reflect on what kind of different generation we may now be spawning.  Go out and find this one!).

 

And hug your kids from me, too.  I love you too Anne.  And Hurrah for all the Lamkendlovs!

Jon