Finish with a Flourish

   Every once in awhile, as a parent, you have a moment of clarity so bright and so clear that all those around you can see... that you're totally insane.  But fear not!  It is clarity nonetheless, and you shouldn't shrink from it simply because, as Jonathan Swift put so succinctly, "When a great genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."  By this token at least, Rachel and I should be hailed as such for orchestrating one of the great martial arts performances of our era.

Here are the little madmen training for it in secret!!

    The scene was somewhat unremarkable: We were sitting in church at the very end of the service, battling it out with Knight #1  and trying to find Knight #2, who has a nasty habit of disappearing when you look away at Knight #1.  The final processional hymn was sounding and the officiants (priests and such) had just finished walking out of the sanctuary, which meant that it was time for the organ postlude.  No church that I have ever attended before had an organ postlude;  it actually reminds me of 1700s Germany when Bach would compose a new one every week for his congregation in Hamburg.  It's amazing.  The swells of the deep pipes resonate all around and the glory of God is nearly palpable as the music of heaven seems to draw near... or would if we could hear much more than Elijah yammering, "I'm hungry; I'm so very very hungry..." and Judah crawling into someone's leg two pews ahead of us.


                                          
                              More secret training videos released!!! Watch out for 'crazy eyes Duj'!



      And then... divine clarity!  I grabbed Judah, who was closest to me, and started his little limbs punching and kicking to the crescendo of Vivaldi.  Elijah looked up just as Judah flipped over his head Matrix-style and took a little kick himself as Rachel flew him into the sky.  They chopped; they blocked; they back-flipped with sheer giggly delight as the organist's fingers flew faster and faster.  By the time Crouching Elijah had laid out Hidden Judah with one final double-spin roundhouse, it seemed fire was coming from the organ.  And still they danced, hovering with limber motions as they flew over and under and through one another.  It was a truly transcendent moment-- it was untainted delight, probably more for me than for them.  I go to church often hoping for the presence and touch of God, but I will admit that I did not expect to find it in a spontaneous karate match set to a backdrop of pipe organ-induced splendor. Mysterious ways indeed!