It started with 71

It started with 71.

Dollars, that is.

That was the amount of Timothy's first paycheck from Publix.

When he got the job last spring, the pandemic had changed the world as we knew it. Schools were closed and, as a result, students finished the rest of the academic year virtually. Travel to Europe was banned and travel at home was discouraged. People were advised to stay put, and when venturing outside there were mandates for social distancing and masks. Not the best time to start work.

As a family we discussed the wisdom of Timothy even working during that time. It was a difficult decision. News about the virus changed on an hourly basis, but we worked with what we knew: Timothy was in great health, he did not fall into any of the at-risk categories, and Publix was doing an excellent job of making the store safe (masks, cart sanitization, hand sanitizers, and one-way aisles). Then, of course, there was the fact that Timothy WANTED to work because he had a goal: to save enough money to buy a car the summer before his senior year in high school.

Finally, we talked about fear. We could see, even during those early days, how it would be so easy to withdraw from life and allow fear of the unknown to prevent us from truly living it. 

So on May 16, 2020, Timothy reported to work wearing a Publix green shirt, black work pants, a black apron, and a coordinating black mask. He worked all during the Pandemic summer of 2020, when school resumed in early August, and all through soccer season this past spring. He saved his money.

And just today, the summer before his senior year of high school and a little over a year from when he first started to work, he bought a car ... a peppy Mitsubishi Eclipse. 

Went in for an interview. Came out hired.

Somewhere in the Middle

Have you ever watched The Middle? As a family we love the Hecks, and we were happy when the show's final episode resolved some lingering questions that had carried over several seasons: Will Axl take the job in Denver? Will Sue and Sean get together already? And, most pressing of all, where will that snow globe end up next? 

At one point in the episode, Frankie demands that Mike stop the car, and there in the middle of nowhere she has a crying fit about all the changes happening in their family. 

She cries because the changes herald the sobering reality that things will now different than what they used to be. 

But as much as we would like time to stand still, the reality is that life is a progression of changes--in big, sweeping ways, or little ones that sneak up on you; in ways that bring tears of joy, or depths of despair.  Minute to minute we experience change because, between the bookends of birth and death, changes are the stepping stones for this journey we call Life. 

At the end of that final episode my son asked why the show was called The Middle, so we went through some possibilities: the Hecks are a middle class family, they live in the middle of America, they have three children and the odd number means someone is always caught in the middle.

Or maybe it's because in life we're always in the middle, living in the present but sandwiched between the past and the future. Then, the minute we step into the future we are in the middle again.

I might need a Frankie moment. I'm not sure if this will call for a hug, a tissue, a cookie, or some alone time, but maybe I'll start with a cappuccino.

That's always a good place to start. 

All Who Wander (with a Map) are Not Lost

 Once upon a time we signed Timothy up for a little league flag football team specifically for 1st and 2nd graders. Let me begin by saying it was a complete and total disaster. The kids were rough, the coach was tough, and the parents were absolutely insane (during the first game a woman had to be escorted off the field for yelling like a maniac at the kids).

I knew it was a mistake when, after the first practice, the coach passed out a sheet of paper entitled The Undertaker -- a football play the players were told to memorize.

On the ride home from practice, Timothy looked at the x's and o's and thought it was a treasure map.

I loved the fact that a map sparked Timothy's imagination, that he saw the x's and o's and thought of treasures, and pirate ships, and high seas adventure.  It was something I understood completely because maps have the same effect on me.

In this age of Google Maps and GPS, which admittedly I do use, I still like a good old fashioned map. One I can spread out on the kitchen table in order to take notes in the margin; a map with cities and towns I can circle or star; a map upon which I can make x's and o's and use a bright yellow highlighter to mark our route.

That's my idea of a treasure map.