We’re on the road again, headed to Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. It’s the last of the three Seminaries I’m applying to that we have yet to visit. I’m blogging from our hotel room in Jackson, Mississippi. As a child, I lived here once, but that’s a really long story from a completely different life.
So far, this has been the best road trip with Grady ever. He spent most of the drive today reading books, listening to music with us, and playing with a few toys (my favorite is his leap-pad junior). We also have his “Video Now” player (plays Blues Clues, Clifford, & Bob the Builder) that his grandparents bought for him, but in accordance with our philosophy on limited TV/video, he can only watch it after dark, which today accounted for about one hour out of our seven-hour drive.
I’m amazed at how long he’ll sit still reading these days. I hope it carries over into adolescence. I was a total book-worm (no surprise there) so perhaps it’s in his genes. Around the time Grady was born, I made a promise to read to him every single night, until he was able to read by himself–and even then to continue reading together as long as he would be willing. With a few exceptions (when I’m away on lock-ins & youth retreats), I’ve managed to keep that promise, and even on those few occasions when I haven’t, Amy has covered for me.
As I watch him sleeping peacefully in our hotel room tonight, it’s a promise I don’t regret. Tonight we read “Danny Dozer Hits a Home Run” and “Arthur’s Birthday.” Not exactly the high literature we started out with when he was born, but he picks them out more than I do these days. And someday soon we’ll get back to Tolkien and Beowulf.