fun on thanksgiving
The day after Thanksgiving, Catherine and I managed to catch up with the McMains galaxy for a delightful afternoon of nature, sweat, and togetherness.
One highlight was the hour or so spent on a park playground. For the first time in too long, I mounted the do-it-yourself carousel. You know what I mean: that flat disk that has a few rails to hang on to. You get on and some game adult spins you till you're dizzy. I was the game adult; my victims were the irrepressible McMains children. We yelled and screamed with delight, we jumped on and fell off, we skidded into pebbles, we looked up at the spinning trees and sky.
We all squatted down and hung off the edges while I got us spinning, then we pulled in and leaned into the center, speeding up till we could barely hang on, and proving that the law of the conservation of angular motion is the funnest law of all. It's one of the many laws of physics that can make you scream, especially if you're seven. As this was a McMains gathering, that law was discussed among kids of all ages, and its implications were explored, with as great a zeal as the jumping on and off.
Yes! The distinctly human joy of scrambling brain and viscera, of feeling the laws of nature in one's bones! What better kickoff to Advent? What better way to dive into the mysteries of incarnation and praxis? I shall scream with the understanding also.
One highlight was the hour or so spent on a park playground. For the first time in too long, I mounted the do-it-yourself carousel. You know what I mean: that flat disk that has a few rails to hang on to. You get on and some game adult spins you till you're dizzy. I was the game adult; my victims were the irrepressible McMains children. We yelled and screamed with delight, we jumped on and fell off, we skidded into pebbles, we looked up at the spinning trees and sky.
We all squatted down and hung off the edges while I got us spinning, then we pulled in and leaned into the center, speeding up till we could barely hang on, and proving that the law of the conservation of angular motion is the funnest law of all. It's one of the many laws of physics that can make you scream, especially if you're seven. As this was a McMains gathering, that law was discussed among kids of all ages, and its implications were explored, with as great a zeal as the jumping on and off.
Yes! The distinctly human joy of scrambling brain and viscera, of feeling the laws of nature in one's bones! What better kickoff to Advent? What better way to dive into the mysteries of incarnation and praxis? I shall scream with the understanding also.
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