A Tale of Two Places:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
but then an hour later, Jasmine made it pretty good again!
(rev 7/5/2021)
IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES:
Claire had a great time at the Cornerstone University Girls Basketball Camp last week. (The last week of June, 2021)
She met some new friends and living in the dorm for 4 days gave her the experience of college dorm life and the sisterhood of sorority friendships.
There were about 60 girls there and the 8 coaches were all young women. Every day, the girls had devotions with their coach and at the end of the camp, every girl received a hand-written note from her coach with words of encouragement. Claire didn’t share her note with me, but that’s alright, it’s no doubt a heartfelt note from her coach.
If I was her coach, I’d write:“I have great confidence in you;
I take great pride in you.
I am greatly encouraged [by you]:
in [spite of all my personal challenges]
my joy [for you] knows no bounds”
Personalized from II Corinthians 7:4
IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES:
After 4 days, it was time to exchange phone numbers and say goodbye.
BUT THEN JASMINE…
Earlier in the week, Jasmine told me Claire is her favorite sister and she missed her a lot.
On the way home, I told Claire that Jasmine is so excited that she’s coming home again.
And I asked Claire if she missed Jasmine.
In perhaps typical teenage indifference, Claire didn’t answer, but right after this picture was taken, Jasmine opened the door and gave Claire a big hug.
And I said, “See – told you!“
So I’m no Charles Dickens, but you have to admit, my story is a lot better than the Tale of Two Cities. I didn’t use old English words or syntax. And I didn’t make the story so difficult to read that you need to watch the movie first. And, my story is anything but the dread of required reading for college freshmen.
And I don’t recall Charles Dickens ever writing, “And about an hour later, Jasmine made it pretty good again.”
And be honest, once you get to the end, whose picture would you rather look at on the back cover?
“And really, Chuck, do you think that velvet lapel will actually detract attention from your bad hair day and unkept beard? Take a lesson from Bob in the year 2021!”
Come on, Chuck! What does this even mean? Are you serious? Do you really think college freshmen in the 20th century will have time to even figure this out?
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
If a sentence is too long and complicated to diagram, then it’s a waste of words! If I were Charley’s 8th grade English teacher, I’d have to mark him down for this and ask him to rewrite it if he wants credit. If he’s not willing to diagram it on the board in front of the class, then he has to rework it.