Boy, am I one lucky duck! I’m not sure how it happened, but my children gave me four grandchildren (I know how thathappened) who are the smartest, most athletic, best looking, most personable, kindest, and a whole bunch of other superlative adjectives who ever lived. But my mind was blown away this week when it occurred to me that not everyone agreed.
A few days ago, I attended a gymnastics competition to watch my thirteen-year-old granddaughter compete in four gymnastics events: bars, vault, floor routine, and balance beam. These girls twirl and whirl and flip and flop and fall and get up and do it again. Just watching them made my sciatica vellicate (new word for me, relating to spasm), and my aches and pains begged for something to calm them. My daughter suggested wine, but 9:00 in the morning was a tad early.
Her other grandmother and I watched her and the other competitors critically, scrutinizing each move for even the slightest error, like wayward toes or fingers or an elbow or knee that wasn’t as straight as a stick. We were definitely objective, no doubt about it, and she easily earned “10s” in all four events in our eyes. Deservedly so. Clearly, there were no twitching toes or fluttering fingers. A true spectacle of perfection! But the judges either had blinders on or didn’t know her talents and gave her less than perfect scores. What were the judges thinking? Weren’t they watching carefully? Didn’t they see how easily she recovered after that one tiny gaffe? I mean, hooray, that she came home with a ribbon around her neck, but surely not the ribbon she deserved!
This week she became a teenager, thirteen, and getting through her teenage years will be a challenge, no matter what, but she has all the other superlative adjectives to help her. She is smart, athletic, pretty, personable, and kind. She can carry on a decent conversation and knows the difference between a gerund and an infinitive (important stuff to us English teachers). And best of all, she likes to travel with her grandma! Don’t those judges take these things into consideration when offering up points? I certainly do. Judy, her other grandma and I agree. We got the best one.
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We don’t wish Covid on any of our grandchildren, so mask up.
