Oct. 31, 2006
Soccer Boys! or the Cruelty of Children
I really enjoy about 85 percent of the time I spend with my Under-10 soccer team. They are enthusiastic and competitive. They learn new skills quickly and usually treat each other well. But the moments of bad behaviour depress me and wear me down. Every once in a while somebody will blast a ball at the head of somebody who is drinking water or something. And I hate it when they accuse each other rashly ("Johnny never passes") or, as the lawyer in me thinks, impune motives not in evidence ("You went to that line because you hate Kyle!") I want to focus on teaching these kids soccer skills. But all my work on skills will be pointless if the chemistry is bad. And comments like this hurt chemistry. So I need to teach soccer skills and people skills. Well I guess that's what it's all about anyway.

Oct. 23, 2006
Last Day of Over-30 Women's Outdoor Soccer
The wind was cold, the sun went down. We only had about eight players on each side, but we played the full 60 minutes to a 0 to 0 tie. It was hard to get offense going with the short sided teams. But we ran and yelled and kicked the ball hard. Sometimes I think that's all we need to do. I was really tired afterward. We followed the usual tradition of going to Friendly's for dinner. The boys and I talked and relaxed over dinner and ice cream. I will miss the routine, but indoor soccer starts soon!

10/11/06
The Kite Runner
Last night I finished Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. My mind is filled with questions I don't have time to research right now. The book, which tells the moving story of two half-brothers across the last four decades of turbulent Afghan history, is somewhat autobiographical. Hosseini says in the introduction that the father character in the book is based on his own father. But the rest? Did he adopt his half-brother's son after the father was murdered by the Taliban? Did he also almost die at the hands of a sociopathic Taliban official? I doubt it, and I think the important truth in the book is that the outlines are true -- Afghanistan really has been suffered horribly under rule by different outside groups that had their own murderous agenda. What a beautifully told nightmare!

The Kite Runner was published in 2003 by Penguin and is available at www.amazon.com.

10/10/06
Publishing Excitement!
Today I received an e-mail containing the 112 proof pages for my upcoming biography of Carl Sandburg. What excitement! It was strange seeing something I wrote so long ago (last winter) all type-set and almost ready to be published. Returning to Carl Sandburg's world of biography, politics, poetry and music for a day -- even if it was just to write a two-page index, was a pleasure. And writing the nice comments from by editor, "Your sidebars are really terrific," was also a nice boost. The amazing part was that I did manage to write the whole index despite Gabo (11) being home sick. He was just nauseas most of the day. It wasn't until the late afternoon that I sat on the floor of the bathroom with him as he painfully vomited. He seems to be better now.

Heroscape
Oct. 2, 2006
Mario (9) came home from a sleepover on Saturday talking about how much he liked a board game he had played. I was surprised, because it seems as though Mario, "a man of action," usually finds board games way too cerebral. We did some internet research and found some positive reviews for Heroscape, the fairly new game from Milton Bradley. At $39.99, the "Heroscape Game System Master Set" was really expensive for a board game. But I figured if it was as fun as Mario said it was, then it would be worth it.
At first it was a big disappointment, because Gabriel (11) and Mario started playing while I cooked. Mario had learned a sort of quick version of the game, in which most of the pieces weren't used, and rules were improvised. Gabriel tends to be legalistic and very competitive. He kept noticing that Mario's improvised rules were not very consistent. Pretty soon the tears were flowing. I couldn't believe I had paid $40 for tears! I suggested we try reading the rule book, which is about 20 pages long.
We started after church on Sunday at about 12:30 p.m. It was really slow going at first. For about an hour Mario complained that he was bored and that he wanted to go back to his quick system. But we built the "Migol's Tomb" battleground, drafted fighters, and started figuring the game out. It turned out to be really fun. It's a combination of chess and Risk. Every character has special powers and it's necessary to plan strategy. Four hours into the game we were still learning about special rules and possible tactics, but we were having a blast. Finally, at 7 p.m., I said we had to stop. This morning the game is still laid out in the living room, and both teams are vastly diminished, but fighting to the bitter end. I can sincerely thank Milton Bradley for a great Sunday afternoon at home with my kids, something that is all too rare.