I been reading Barbara Kingsolver’s new novel, “The Lacuna.” One simple sentence jumped out at me and gave me a belly laugh: “Even a feather duster will lay an egg in April.”
Ah, the predictability of life. If in April the eggs are rolling in the nesting boxes, you can be sure the 11 other months are unpredictable, at best. Too often, we find ourselves giving reasons why the girls aren’t laying: It’s too hot. It’s too cold. The days are too short. The nights are too long. It’s snowing. Well, it’s not snowing now, but you get the point.
Our son Richard returned from Juiz de For a, Brasil, last week on the heels of good news – he’s going to graduate from Kutztown Area High School June 15. He was the school’s first outbound Rotary Exchange student, so we weren’t sure how the credits and requirements would work out. But, Richard put together two portfolios of his work at the Jesuit school he attended and mailed them to KAHS. Evidently, they passed the muster.
The real proof of the value of his year in Brasil came his first night back when he went to a Rotary picnic. My shy son of a year ago walked up to many of the Rotarians who guided him through the Rotary exchange application process, greeting each with a kiss on each cheek. Richard is speaking fluent Portuguese with Celso (who stayed with us when he was a Rotary Exchange high school student and who is now a senior at Kutztown University) and he is rocking to the Brasilian beat of reggae, rap and favela funk.
Richard summed up the experience, “It was my best year ever.”
What more could a parent want?
And actually, if he would have been in Kutztown instead of Juiz de Fora for his senior year, I might have been more worried than I was when he was a hemisphere away. First of all, he had a wonderful host mom, Meire, She often reassured me in English (she was a Rotary Exchange student visitig the U.S. in the 1970s) that Richard was doing well. And, had Richard been here, he might have been involved in a senior prank, and I might have been his accomplice. And boy, would we have gotten in trouble!
Our neighbor Lisa once shared this story about a senior prank. Apparently, some students suffering from Senioritis released three chickens in their high school. There was quite a bit of squawking and ruffled feathers. But the chickens were finally captured, and each had a number hanging from her neck: No. 1, No. 2, and No. 4 … Oh, how those teachers and administrators looked for chicken No. 3! Laurie Lynch
At Fleur-de-Lys Farm this week: eggs if you are lucky, garlic scapes, lots of herbs, honey, sugar snap peas, kale, lettuces, and strawberries.
