Dear Audrey,
Your letter(s) arrived in our mailbox today, so I’ve had the pleasure of working on replies!
I think I kind of know what you mean about stepping away from things digital for a bit. While I do appreciate the ability to write letters this way — my handwriting is execrable, I can’t even decipher it myself — I’ve found myself gravitating lately away from Kindle and audio books back toward the paper kind. (I think Carol is probably secretly enjoying that; she loves to read but she detests digital formats.)
I’m not sure I knew that you have a fear of heights. I can imagine that a ropes course would, indeed, be a bit challenging for that! (I’ve actually never done a ropes course before, but it never seemed like something I’d be disappointed to miss.) Have you had any problems with flying related to that, or does that feel completely different?
Classical Conversations sounds quite novel. It’s nice to see a curriculum that leans fairly heavily into memorization. A lot of modern curricula seem to draw a false dichotomy — “passive” memorization versus “active” deduction and reasoning — where in fact each serves the other. The incorporation of rhetoric is also quite interesting! What are some of the rhetorical texts that are included? I imagine Cicero gets a workout?
I just took a look through some of the IEW material online, and I had to chuckle. It reminds me a lot of the torture that my Honors English teacher, Mr. Gibbs, put us through in 11th grade — outlines, diagramming, transitions (paragraph openers), advanced vocabulary, etc. It all culminated with a long term paper, with properly-formatted footnotes, on one of three major authors, in which we had to de demonstrate the skills we had learned. (I chose Steinbeck, the “easy” author.) It was exquisite, drawn-out misery.
And yet: when I got to William and Mary, right out of the box I could do scholarly writing better than probably 90% of the rest of my cohort. So thank God for you, Mr. Gibbs, you splendid autocrat! (He was also the drama teacher, and he let me act in two of his plays, so by the time I graduated I actually kind of loved the guy. Before teaching, he had been a character actor on Broadway, and indeed he was a character.)
All that being said, I have to admit a lot of the formal grammar never really sunk in. I’m afraid I wouldn’t know an object complement noun if it smacked me in the face with a dangling participle. After I retired, I took a correspondence course from the University of Toronto in teaching English as a foreign language — in case I would ever have to work again to supplement our funds. It was lucky for me the exams were basically “open book,” because I quickly found out my knowledge of the finer points of my mother tongue was meagre.
Like you, when it comes to martial arts I like forms (in karate, kata) the best. As I recall, we had a four-week cycle wherein each week we would learn or practice a different aspect of the belt we were working toward. I always loved kata week, and mostly dreaded sparring week. It wasn’t really that I was afraid to spar; it just felt kind of weird. Guys used to think that I was pretty intimidating because whenever I sparred I always had this giant grin on my face — and apparently I looked very confident (and sorta ferocious). In truth, I was constantly on the verge of giggling because I felt embarrassed and slightly ridiculous.
Is Zeke getting used to his retainers yet? That’s something I never had to go through, and I’m mostly pretty grateful for that. I did have one tooth (an incisor) that was way out of whack, but the dentist just pulled it and everything else came in mostly okay — or well enough that Mom and Dad didn’t feel like it merited a lot of cash to fine-tune. But I remember how much misery a lot of my friends went through with all that hardware. I probably didn’t end up with the most attractive smile, but then I was a dark little kid who didn’t smile much anyway. (Winky face here.)
How was Natural Leaders camp? Is that the same as the Camp Curtis that Zeke mentioned? What kinds of skills did you learn (and did you encounter any danger noodles)? I loved your story about the snake in your garage, by the way. Did s/he ever turn up again?
The Vermeer exhibition was very good. Really, we got to see almost all his major works; it was a once-in-a-lifetime show, because museums are generally really reluctant to send that stuff out on the road. The two major pieces that I recall not being there were the Girl with the Pearl Earring and The Art of Painting. But that’s all right, those aren’t my favorite in any case. My very favorite Vermeer, ironically, is one that is right there in the collection of the National Gallery in DC, so I’ve seen it many times: the Woman Holding A Balance.
It is, simply, a perfect painting.
There were other standouts as well, of course, such as the View of Delft and the famous Milkmaid. Actually, by the way, Vermeer and Rembrandt were mostly contemporaries, and both would have been around to experience the Tulpomania (1636), though Vermeer wouldn’t have been quite of adult age yet. The Dutch 17th Century was fascinating indeed! That was the focus of much of my grad study. In addition to Rembrandt and Vermeer, a great favorite of mine from that era was Gerard ter Borch, an absolutely brilliant genre painter.
(And I agree, by the way: tulips are absolutely breathtaking.)
While I enjoyed the Vermeer exhibition (naturally) and I mostly enjoyed the trip, I can’t say as I have any desire to get back to the low countries anytime soon. Too crowded, too much traffic — and Amsterdam especially just feels a bit grubbier, druggier, and more licentious than I really like. Ghent was a bit nicer, but I still wouldn’t be inclined to go back.
On the other hand, I’m pretty jazzed about our upcoming trips this summer. Ireland is a place I’ve been curious about for a long time — not so much for any particular attraction like the Giant’s Causeway —
— but more just to get immersed in the culture, catch some music in a pub, and so on. In Vienna, on the other hand (October), I am very much looking forward to my (early) birthday present: I asked Carol to get us tickets to a classic opera in one of the world’s great opera houses, and she settled on Verdi’s Otello, in the famous Vienna Opera:
We’ll be spending most of the month there, but I’m mostly just really looking forward to that occasion! (As I write this, I’m listening to Otello on Spotify, with Luciano Pavarotti and Kiri Te Kanawa.)
I’m so sorry I’ll miss your 40th celebration! (Teary face here x 3) I would love to be able to be there — sadly, it’s right in the middle of our Vienna trip, and after this past spring our flying budget is already wiped out. It’s all driving for the next few months (with ferries to the UK). Boy, I wish too that you could join us in Britain and Ireland! I would especially love to share the Edinburgh Festival and the Fringe with you — you would absolutely love it.
I completely understand about the kids and flying, by the way. Coming this direction is probably a little less of a challenge, since most US -> France flights leave in the evening and go overnight, so the kids fall asleep along the way. Going back the other way happens in the middle of the day, so it might be a bit more challenging to keep them entertained going that way. One thing you might consider is taking IcelandAir; their trans-Atlantic flights stop over in middle in Reykjavik, so you can get a few hours break.
Carol just dropped in to let me know it’s time to go to the gym — our new thing — so I’d better bring this to a close. Thanks again for writing, and let’s do this again soon! (Big smiley.)
Love,
Dad
Ronald Crittenden 