After his fantastic summer (courtesy of his mom) that I may or may not remember to tell you about at some point, M. Edium is back at school, currently wrapping up his second week of second grade. It's been going well -- for him, at least. There's a new kid in his class this year, and his first week did not go well.

On Wednesday, he wasn't sure where to wait for his dad to pick him up, so M. Edium stayed with him until his dad showed up and saw him safely into his car.

On Thursday, the new kid brought his favorite book in to share with the class, and his favorite page got torn out. M. Edium was the one who suggested eBay to find replacements for out-of-print books, and offered to bring in tape from home, since the new kid's home hadn't been unpacked yet.

Friday was the worst day of all, when the new kid broke his glasses. M. Edium was the one who volunteered to show him to the nurse's office, and then came home and asked us if he could buy his friend a new pair. On top of everything else, the new kid's parents are recently divorced, and he was worried about the replacement cost. M. Edium was heartbroken for him.

As you may have seen if you follow me or Trash on Twitter, M. Edium's favorite stuffed animal for years, Caddy the caterpillar, went missing earlier this week. We had to assume it was in the house somewhere, because I remembered giving it to him the night we got back from the cabin just a couple of weeks before. So at the very least we knew it wasn't in a hotel room in Indiana this time. But we just couldn't find it anywhere in the house, even after a complete stuffy-census of his overcrowded bunk bed, and there were enough troubling gaps in the Without a Trace whiteboard timeline we constructed that I thought it best to see about getting a replacement. I won't bore you with the details of how we found a duplicate on eBay (let me just say that the seller's listing of it as a centipede rather than a caterpillar would have thwarted less determined shoppers) and put in an exorbitant top bid the day before the end of the auction. Trash told him the truth about this, of course. Then that night, my parents called to report that Caddy had been found in M. Edium's sleeping bag from a previous overnight, and after we made a Knuffle Bunny-style run to retrieve him in the gathering dusk, M. Edium's relief was sweetened by the fact that Caddy might be getting a twin in a few days. But then the next day we saw that our exorbitant bid had been beaten, which told us some other little boy or girl somewhere was missing a Caddy that still hadn't turned up. We asked M. Edium if it wouldn't be better for this other child to have one Caddy than for him to have two, and he nodded violently and without reservation. He couldn't stand the thought of being without a Caddy, but nor could he stand the thought of someone else being without theirs.

And then when I woke him up for school this morning, the very first thing he said to me was, "Good morning, and happy anniversary."

This is our kid. This is the kid my wife has been raising. We've been married 21 years today, and she can still surprise me. I always assumed any kid we had would have entered the jerk phase by the time he was eight no matter what we did. I'm pretty sure that when I was eight, I was a jerk. But Trash is making sure our kid remains a kind-hearted, empathetic, understanding, thoughtful human being instead. I'm incredibly proud of both of them.

Happy anniversary, Trash. You amaze me every day. And M. Edium, I know you think you understand how incredible your mom is, but someday you'll appreciate it even more. I'll make sure of that.

5 Comments:

This is a lovely story - you have raised one hell of a good kid.

By  Helen, at September 14, 2012 at 8:29 PM  

Trash has a twitter account? Does anyone know her handle? It's for a friend...

By  Anonymous, at September 14, 2012 at 8:59 PM  

That brought tears to my eyes! Happy anniversary to one lucky husband and father!

Lora

By  Anonymous, at September 15, 2012 at 2:35 AM  

My son will be 21 soon, and he never did hit a "jerk" phase. We still really enjoy spending time together. It never stops being a wonderful feeling. Congrats!

By  Marchelle, at September 15, 2012 at 3:39 PM  

I remembered your name from TWOP YEEEEARS ago, and I just googled it and came across this entry. And it's lovely and super great so thanks, I'm glad I got to read it. -Annie

By  Anonymous, at August 3, 2013 at 2:53 AM  

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As is often the case, I knew almost nothing about Bernie walking into it, other than that it was playing at the Parkway. I like seeing movies at the Parkway, because it's charmingly dilapidated and it has couches and beer. Normally I like an Icee at the movie theater, but a beer will do. I keep hoping someone will put out a beer Icee, but I'm still waiting.

Anyway, considering the Parkway doesn't play trailers, I felt like I spent an inordinate amount of time waiting for the movie to start already. I mean, there were sounds and pictures and Jack Black on the screen, but it seemed to take forever to get going. The movie is the story of a highly popular assistant funeral director (Black as the titular Bernie) in the small town of Carthage, Texas who strikes up a curious relationship with a rich but hateful widow played by Shirley MacLaine. But a surprising amount of the story is told, not shown, by a Greek chorus of everypeople with varying degrees of camera non-readiness. So I sat there for a long time wondering if I was in for an hour and a half of "look at the rubes!" I was expecting better from director Richard Linklater.

I also wondered when Jack Black was going to cut loose already. Bernie was this sweet, innocent, happy guy, but since he was being played by Jack Black, I couldn't help wondering when he was going to drop the act. The answer: never. He does get to sing quite a bit, so I figured that was why he signed on. That, and like Matthew McConaghey (playing a self-aggrandizing DA), he owed Linklater a solid for making him a star. Why else would he allow himself to be made up like a younger, fatter Wayne Newton?

As the story progresses -- slooowly -- the most likable person in town becomes friends with the last likable person in town, and I couldn't help thinking of the time on The Office when Andy showed Jim and Pam an advance screener of as new movie in which Jack Black fell in love with Cloris Leachman. I wouldn't have watched that movie, and I was beginning to regret watching this one, beer or no. Finally it ends, and there's some commentary about public opinion and the rule of law (although it's the opposite of what we usually see), and then it's over, and Bernie makes his final, light-footed exit, and I'm left thinking, So what was the point of all that? I felt rather like I'd just sat through one of the Coen brothers' more purposeless outings.

But then the twist comes -- a twist for me, at least, who as you know does minimal research before going to see most movies -- and I discovered that it was actually a true story. I admit that it's entirely my fault for not knowing this. In fact, there may even have been a title card right at the opening, but the fact that it started with the words "What you're fixin' to see" left me rage-blinded to anything else it might have had to say.

So that left me with another question: should it make a difference whether the story you're watching unfold on a movie screen is true or not? We expect an interesting tale either way, right? I looked back on the movie, wondering if I would have experienced it differently had I known it was a true-crime semi-documentary rather than a half-baked mockumentary, and I had to admit that yes, I would have. As a made-up story, you watch it thinking, This is so dumb. This would never happen. And then I got to the end and realized, "That happened? Okay, obviously this story needed telling.

I should have had more faith in Linkater. I know full well he's dabbled in genre-mixing before, and I have to admit that he pulled off the mockumentary/documentary mix admirably. The lesson here is that I should always trust that he knows what he's doing, even when I don't.

2 Comments:

I think you've put your finger on why 'true' stories have a different impact - the watcher stops assessing the credibility of the characters' actions and that often gives a completely different experience. I know I am sometimes so astonished at what is being shown as 'fact' that I do research after the movie / doco just to see if things were elided or amped up, so incredible are some people's 'plans'.

Thacky

By  Anonymous, at September 6, 2012 at 7:03 PM  

What's with all the movie reviews? Have you given up blogging?

By  Anonymous, at September 12, 2012 at 10:05 PM  

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