Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Eagles vs Seagulls

Our FHE lesson on Monday was about the miracle of the gulls. The entire lesson was a flop: Jake had to take Claire out of the room when she wouldn't stop wailing because she didn't get to say the opening prayer, even though we let her say a second opening prayer; Damon was angry because no one was sitting in the right place; Anne was being Anne, running from one corner of the room to the other. I closed the lesson by saying Utah made the seagull its state bird fifty years later out of gratitude for what the seagulls had done.

Everything had gone so badly up until then that I shouldn't have been surprised to find Damon disappointed and demoralized to the point of tears to learn that each state had its own bird. His feelings seemed to be mortally offended on behalf of bald eagles everywhere that they were not enough the fulfill the avian needs of all the nation. We finally were able to comfort him with the assurance that all fifty states stand united under the bald eagle, regardless of their individual birds.

This morning I told him that Justin (my brother serving a mission in FL) wanted him to write to him.

"Why?" Damon asked.

"Because he misses you and is probably lonely far away from his family and friends."

"At least he still has the national bird, the bald eagle," Damon said solicitously.

Justin must feel comforted by that knowledge every day.

6 comments:

lissyfarnz said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
lissyfarnz said...

Laughing out loud, Charlotte! What a great post!

We were in your neck of the woods recently and thought of you. How are things?

Jamie said...

That made me laugh so hard. I can't wait to see you in real life and laugh more.

I'm glad your FHEs are like ours.

DocMisty said...

LOL - I love your posts! I never thought of it before, but now I suddenly feel comforted myself, knowing that the bald eagle is watching over all of us :-)

Wendi said...

Well--at least you try. Which is worse FHE with toddlers or FHE with teenagers?

Kim said...

Damon reminds me of Nathan. I wish we could get them together. Great post.