Here is a great article

Usually I just link to articles, but I thought that this warranted actual publication. I try to read Bob Welch's column every time it published, and I always enjoy what he has to say. If you want to read the actual article, go here.


Bob Welch: The best things in a kid's life are free

By Bob Welch
Columnist, The Register-Guard
Published: Tuesday, January 23, 2007


I saw it Friday night in a Salem neighborhood: a snowman that, based on its oversized stocking cap and muffler, had, before temperatures rose, once been much taller, bulkier and nobler.
A little girl, with a sense of quiet compassion, was transferring the scant remains of snow from other parts of the yard to shore up what looked to be the Snow Lump Formerly Known as Frosty.
If the scene might have discouraged some, it encouraged me: Imagine, I thought, a child acting like a child. That's a rare thing these days.

The trend is quite the opposite - fast-tracking kids to be, in essence, what parents want them to be: scholars, athletes, entertainers. Young adults. Movers and shakers with mouths full of braces. And not allowing them to be what they really want to be at this point in their lives: kids.

Monday's front-page Register-Guard story about simplifying children's birthday parties also was encouraging. Imagine: Parents waking up and realizing that bringing the entire Broadway cast of "Beauty and the Beast" to the house for Madison's 10th birthday might be a bit much.
Kids aren't nearly as impressed with big-ticket items as their parents are. Kids, unless indoctrinated otherwise, just wanna have fun. And the best fun isn't bought.

It's free. It's within every kid. It's called imagination.

I'm not going to quote a family social science professor to convince you of that.
Instead, I'm going to tell you about the looks in the eyes of the first-graders at Prairie Mountain School last week as I read them Taback Simms' "Joseph Had a Little Overcoat." Their eyes were laser beams to the picture pages - this despite books being decidedly low-tech, costing relatively little and, with rare exceptions, unable to morph into some high-tech toy.
I'm going to tell you about the 20Below students I once coached who, by the time they were sophomores, were already stressing about getting into the right college.

I'm going to tell you about my nearly 2-year-old grandson who's been given an array of wonderful toys but is still more fascinated by those whirly things that twirl downward from maple trees.
We've force-fed our kids into believing that their success is dependent on structure, programs, camps, schools. Things we pay for. But it often backfires.

The reason kids don't use their imaginations more is that, instead of writing their own play and performing it on the back deck, they're shuffled off to adult-supervised theater camps.
We've convinced kids that unless they make this elite team or get into that elite school, their lives are doomed. You hardly ever see kids, without adults, playing a pickup baseball game anymore. My kids created a four-kid whiffle ball league that came complete with (self-made) uniforms, a (self-made) scoreboard and a (self-made) newspaper.

We've come to believe that boredom in children is the social equivalent of the Bubonic plague. No, boredom invites invention. Boredom invites imagination. Boredom gently challenges a child to tap into his or her creativity.

But we panic. We offer, instead, television, computer or video games where the imagination comes built-in and say: Here, interact with this - instead of handing the child a video camera and saying: here, make your own movie. Or, here's a computer, write your own book. Or, as we did at one birthday party, here's a backyard and two sacks of marshmallows. Pick them up when the mallow-war is over.

An MSN story on the Web says spending for kids' birthday parties "has been rising steadily over the past several years as parents have looked for ways to connect with their kids."

A word of advice for such folks: Wanna connect with your kid? For starters, let that kid be one.

Bob Welch can be reached at 338-2354 or at bwelch@guardnet.com.

Catching up…

It’s been awhile since I’ve had a real substantive blog entry. I’ve been real busy with school and haven’t been able to find the hour or so it takes to add a long update. So here goes…

The Dog:

I have been deluged with emails (OK, “deluged” might be too strong of a word) requesting pictures of our new dog. Being the responsive blogger that I am, I will satisfy those requests. Here are a few pictures of the newest Wilson, Zeke the Alaskan Malamute.






Thoughts on being a dog owner: I think it should be a requirement that all new parents own a puppy for a few months before their baby is born so they can get into the groove. Owning a puppy is very similar to having a baby. Just when I had almost suppressed those difficult memories, back are the nights where I’m waking up multiple times. The only difference is that my slumber is now broken with howls and yips rather than the cries of a newborn.

On the whole, however, Zeke has been a great addition to our family. He’s a pretty mellow dog, which has been nice. The only real challenges we’ve had so far have been (1) sleeping through the night; (2) going to the bathroom outside; and (3) biting/chewing on everything in sight. I think we’ve almost conquered #1, in order to combat #2 we just need to be diligent in letting him outside every 30 minutes or so, and we’re still working on #3.


The Fam:

Everybody is doing pretty well. When we went over to Bend to pick up Zeke we spent the night at an awesome bread and breakfast that was about and hour outside Eugene. Here is a family picture (sans Samantha who was being shy).



I think I’ll try to focus an entire post on each family member at some point in the future, ala the Zimels. Drew and I finished reading Roald Dahl’s Danny, the Champion of the World earlier this year and now we just finished Fantastic Mr. Fox by the same author. Drew went to a LazerTag party on Saturday with a bunch of his buddies and he loved it. Of course he dressed in camo fatigues, so while his friends’ white T-shirts were beacons in the black-light-lit room, Drew was creeping around undetected. Here are a few pictures.




Sam is just her normal diva-ish self. She honestly changes clothes at least 4-5 times per day, often trying to discover which dress produces the best “twirl.” In a surprising development, it appears that Beauty and the Beast has overtaken Cinderella as the favorite Disney movie in the Wilson household.



Missi and I went to a fun Polka Dot and Plaid party over the weekend. Here are a few pictures.

Missi and Monica


Me and Jumane

I’ll have more to add re: school, my job, etc..in the future but I think this post is a good start.

I thought this was funny...

First some background: We put away all of our Christmas decorations several weeks ago, but for some reason a small figurine of Joseph from our nativity scene escaped and Samantha has been playing with it from time to time.

Now the "rest of the story:" This morning Drew and I were sitting down having breakfast and he was holding the Joseph figurine in his hand. He turned it over and said: "This says 'Made in China.' That's weird, it should say 'Made in Bethlehem.'"

Happy Birthday to a great friend

I was going to use this post to catch up on a lot of the happenings from the past week or so, but instead I’m devoting it to wishing happy birthday to one of my best friends, Adam. Austin, Texas is lucky to have the Zimel family...

Not THAT feeling again...

Why, oh why, do I already have the "finals-esque" feeling already? It's not easily described, but it is essentially a nervous, almost frenetic energy and the thought that I won't get everything done, coupled with the normal thoughts of procrastination and wondering where to start. I thought this feeling isn't supposed to hit until around April 1, when I begin my exam prep in earnest. I guess the catalyst for such a feeling is the National Appellate Advocacy Competition. I'm going to Las Vegas in March to give oral arguments (in a 9th Circuit courtroom, which will be cool), but before that our team needs to submit a substantial brief on the issues. Therefore, I am almost completely foregoing all of my normal academic responsibilities for this first week of school while I work on the brief. In total, it needs to be around 35 pages long, and I'm basically splitting it with my partner. I'm writing on "shaming conditions," or those type of punishment famously seen imposed upon Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter. The brief is due next Wednesday, so hopefully like will return to "normal" after it's finished. It's a good thing I'm getting an academic credit for this effort.

Here's a whimsical, yet thoughtful, quote for the day: "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

—Dr. Seuss

P.S. About a week ago I sent out a "Year in Review" newsletter. If you didn't receive this and you'd like too, please email me: johnsamuelwilson AT gmail DOT com

Introducing Zeke

Here are a few photos of Zeke, our new puppy. We're going over to Bend this weekend to meet the breeder. We're all very excited but I will also admit to have some feelings of anxiousness. Will this mean a return to the nights of waking up every 3-4 hours like when Drew/Sam were infants? Will we have difficulty housebreaking him? What if he isn't very friendly with the kids (the breeder said this is highly unlikely)? I suppose all will be answered in due time.

These pics are from about a week ago, when Zeke was 6-1/2 weeks old. We'll get him around 8 weeks of age.

Tidbits o' this 'n that

Where have you been? I’ve been in some mediation training for the past three days. It has been a rough way to end my Christmas break before the semester begins. I think it’s been helpful but it has been long days and I wish I could’ve been with the fam for these last few days of break.

What is the world coming to: We asked Drew what some of his friends got for Christmas and, no joke, he said that his friend Addison got a real cell phone. And yes, that would be a first grader who is carrying a cell phone.

Going to the chapel: Not sure if I mentioned this in earlier posts, but my sister Julie got engaged a few days before Christmas. Congratulations to Brian and Julie!

Ducks hoops: I took Drew to the USC game on Thursday evening and we had a great time. It was even better because my buddy Mike drove down from Portland and watched the game with us. Unfortunately the Ducks couldn’t hit their shots down the stretch and they lost 84-82. Today, however, THE DUCKS BEAT THE #1 TEAM IN THE COUNTRY. I had given tickets to Missi for Christmas and we were so excited to be going, but being the genius that I am, I didn’t check the Ducks’ game schedule. If I had, I would’ve realized that the game was scheduled for 11:00AM rather than 5:30PM, when I thought it was scheduled for. Huge bummer that we couldn’t be there. I don’t think this Ducks team is going to the Final Four or anything (they’re too small), but they are at least exciting and I think they’ll make it the NCAA Tournament.

The silver screen: We’ve seen a couple of decent movies over the past few weeks. If you have time, you should check out any of the following: Murderball, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, We are Marshall, and Little Miss Sunshine. All good flicks.

Back to the grind: Here are the classes I’m taking this spring – Business Associations, Trial Practice, Legal Profession, and Mediation Clinic. With these credits, along with some other ungraded credits, I’ll have 17 credits. On a related note, I got my grades for the fall semester and I was happy with them.

A very gangster New Year's Eve

Missi and I had a blast on New Year's Eve, attending a murder mystery party at some friend's house in Salem. The era was the Roaring 20's and I was a gangster (think Al Capone-ish) and Missi was a socialite. The whole event was really well organized and it was a great way to ring in 2007. Not surprisingly, Missi won the award for being "most in character." I'm sure I was a close second.

It was really good to see this guy...

One of the highlights of the past weekend was the opportunity to hang out with my buddy Dave. He was in town from San Diego, where he moved about 2-1/2 years ago. Dave and I lived together during my brief time in the dorms at GFU and he is really one of my best friends in the entire world. I often think that it was one of my biggest mistakes not to have him in our wedding. Missi and I gave him the pitch to move back to Portland, so hopefully he gets tired of all that San Diego sun one of these days.