The Unifying Theory of Some Stuff

I'm writing a book, see.  It's about this girl and this boy and I don't want to reveal too much, so I'll leave it at that.  By the way, I sure hope the one minute version of Harry Potter got as many okay-that-sounds-stupid looks as I have gotten when I have given a more complete synopsis.  Things are coming nicely - I'm about 40% through the first draft - largely due to a chapter in the book How to Write a Lot by Paul J. Silvia that was shared with me by our friend and composition professor at Mankato State University, Heather Camp.  The gist of it is to schedule time to write.  For me that means get up early and write until 6:00 or 6:30 depending on whether Caleb wants to play World of Warcraft while people in the U.S.A. are still populating the servers.

Anyway, instead of lying in bed resting from a 22 mile bike ride with Caleb like I should be (it's 12:45 a.m. here), and instead of describing how this girl turned princess now feels the need to learn to fight with a sword to defend herself, I am sitting up thinking about a half wit Unifying Theory of Some Stuff.

I've always been a fan of great unifying theories.  It seems to me that God put together a complex universe that resolves down to some basic truths and the more we learn about science, philosophy, and our Creator, the more clearly we will see these truths and apply them to the problems of life.

Tonight's theory involves fencing, music, storytelling, and Czech.  Unfortunately, in writing the intro, I have forgotten how they all fit together.  This reminds me of the time that I was momentarily able to comprehend how the dimension of time fits with the three spatial dimensions, but afterwards the understanding faded and all I had was a mental sketch of a gleaming, blue corkscrew curve projecting from the origin of a three dimensional cartesian coordinate system.  Or, even worse, the time when I had life all figured out and, when I later tried to describe it, all I could come up with is that it is like a bowl of crushed Wheaties (when I wrote this last night, I erroneously said Corn Flakes - my apologies if anyone spent time contemplating the solemnities of Corn Flakes).

Shoot, well some things that have happened in our lives over the past few days...

Caleb had a concert on Thursday.  His music school orchestra played a piece that may have been the Children's Symphony (or the toy symphony - I'd don't know if they are the same) by Leopold Mozart (don't blame me if I'm confused, they used to tell us that this was composed by one of the Hadyn's).  Caleb then played a nice, solid solo.

On Friday evening, when buddies on two continents were hanging out with friends, Caleb went with Lucy, Silas and me to the grocery store.  On the way back we crossed paths with a bunch of girls and some guys from his class.  I kind of felt for the boy as all he could do was say hi and continue walking, laden down with bags full of milk for his whining toddler brother and beer (non-alcoholic) for his unemployed old man.

Czech continues to be a struggle.  We got the basic mechanics down.  Now it's just a matter of stringing things together quickly enough that people will pay attention to a whole thought.  In fact most of my conversations go one of four ways (english equivalent of czech words given in italics)...

1.  I....like would (the person corrects my word order)...to read (the person corrects my pronunciation of the letter 'i')...a book (the person corrects the ending I used on the word book)...about (the person has started a conversation somebody else).

2.  Peter - I speak a little Czech
     Other Person - I speak a little English
     Peter - simple Czech words for which the Other Person knows the English equivalent and "uhs" for all the rest.
     Other Person - simple English words for which Peter knows the Czech equivalent and "ers" for all the rest.

3.  I think that you...should...try...how do you say X?  Oh, heck, (and speak english from there on).

4.  I don't speak Czech.

I didn't understand a lot at fencing on Monday, but it became clear to me that it is realistic for a very talent fencer to defeat a whole bunch of unskilled swordsmen (like they always do in the movies).  So after class I asked the teacher if he could take on the whole class and win.  He said no, but there will be a tournament at the end of the year, and, while it will be disgraceful if he loses to me, it would be more disgraceful to not accept my challenge, so we are on.

We have started getting packages from people and requests for our mailing address.  Let me say, I think folks are crazy to spend the kind of money that it takes to mail a package here.  With that said, we really appreciate the consideration and sacrifice.  Thank you.

Finally, we did celebrate Thanksgiving on Sunday.  We had turkey, gravy, stuffing, potatoes, corn, lingonberries, bread, and the biggest pumpkin pie I have ever seen for dessert.  We had the pleasure of the company of the four missionaries here in Česke Budejovice.

The missionaries are...

Elder Hill - an excellent singer and, we learned Sunday, a Guitar Hero hero, nearing the end of his mission.

Elder Pearson - came to the Czech Republic about two weeks before us and, in Kristine's words, has left me in the dust in terms of learning Czech.  His dad is a General Authority (Elder Pearson of the Seventy) so we are always asking him what it's like to grow up in such a household.

Elder Vivona - has only been out for about a month.  He's coming along nicely with the language too.

Elder Nowland - I'm no Czech, but it sure sounds to me like this elder has it down.  He even draws out the letters with accent marks, he even speaks with the same kind of cadence as Czechs.  He too is nearing the end.

It's now 2:00 a.m. and there is no sleep in sight.  I think I'll try warm milk and counting Czech noun endings.

Peter