Incidence and Inscription
A year ago contemplating the changes that would come with a new job, I read George Orwell's perception of the hotel kitchen in Down and Out in Paris and London. He wrote, ""Anyone coming into the basement for the first time would have thought himself in a den of maniacs. It was only later, when I understood the working of a hotel, that I saw order in all this chaos."
The job adjustment continues along lines similar to those Orwell described, although I would rather be circumspect on those details. Since impending adoptive, first-time parenthood of a 14-month-old in our own middle age is what's on the immediate horizon for my wife and myself, that is another area in which to see the truth in Orwell's perception. Anywhere adaptation is going to be required, it seems, we first see the chaos. We see what's different than the routine and the assumptions to which we have become accustomed, and there is at least some urge to panic and protest. Then, we persist and see the order in what first appeared to be chaos.
We've seen the sleeplessness on television. For a while, we may be in the middle of it and less able to see the charm or summon sympathy. In time, there will be order, and even beauty, in the chaos. We've seen parents strong-arm their child's will, and critiqued. For a while, such reactive responses may be ours as we seek the best way to accomplish necessary objectives in the moment. We've seen parents caving in to their child's impulses, and silently admonished. Now there will be those moments of acquiescence for us as well as we find our way to a new order in sweet chaos.
Pediatrician Leonard Sax sounds a purposeful theme underneath all the minor crises to come. In the secular book The Collapse of Parenting, he draws from the same Deuteronomy 6 passage I've often had in mind. But in the same lying down and rising up, coming in and going out instruction I've often envisioned, he goes deeper. He says this dance, this process, according to the Hebrew verb, actually INSCRIBES God's Word on children. While we see chaos, and others may see it also, He is the One Who is forming character and purpose as both parent and child learn to rely on Him more deeply.
The job adjustment continues along lines similar to those Orwell described, although I would rather be circumspect on those details. Since impending adoptive, first-time parenthood of a 14-month-old in our own middle age is what's on the immediate horizon for my wife and myself, that is another area in which to see the truth in Orwell's perception. Anywhere adaptation is going to be required, it seems, we first see the chaos. We see what's different than the routine and the assumptions to which we have become accustomed, and there is at least some urge to panic and protest. Then, we persist and see the order in what first appeared to be chaos.
We've seen the sleeplessness on television. For a while, we may be in the middle of it and less able to see the charm or summon sympathy. In time, there will be order, and even beauty, in the chaos. We've seen parents strong-arm their child's will, and critiqued. For a while, such reactive responses may be ours as we seek the best way to accomplish necessary objectives in the moment. We've seen parents caving in to their child's impulses, and silently admonished. Now there will be those moments of acquiescence for us as well as we find our way to a new order in sweet chaos.
Pediatrician Leonard Sax sounds a purposeful theme underneath all the minor crises to come. In the secular book The Collapse of Parenting, he draws from the same Deuteronomy 6 passage I've often had in mind. But in the same lying down and rising up, coming in and going out instruction I've often envisioned, he goes deeper. He says this dance, this process, according to the Hebrew verb, actually INSCRIBES God's Word on children. While we see chaos, and others may see it also, He is the One Who is forming character and purpose as both parent and child learn to rely on Him more deeply.
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