Inspiring Genius

While I was looking at the magazine cover of the kayak skiing down the snow covered mountain, thinking how fun that must be, and how dangerous, Asherel was checking her email.
"Oh, poor Josh is freaking out," she said.
"Why?"
"He's toastmaster (of Gavel Club) next week and he sent me 6 emails with questions of what to do."
It is funny that of all people, Josh would be nervous about this role, as he comes across as remarkably self confident, perhaps even a toe over too self confident.
"Are you advising him?" I asked.
"Yes."
I continued thinking about the kayak skiing- would it really be possible to turn, using oars, going 100 miles an hour down icy steep inclines? And if turning were possible, how about stopping? I began to picture in my head the various possible methods of stopping and not one involved leaving the kayak rider alive.
Asherel erupted in laughter.
She could barely speak through her gasping chortles as she read Josh's response:
"Some people, while not possessing genius, have a remarkable talent of stimulating it."
I laughed, "What advice did you give him that was so wonderful?" I asked.
"He couldn't quite fit all the print on one page so I told him to decrease the margins."

I thought about parenting, then. I do not possess genius. However, I do try to stimulate it in my kids. They have far more potential than I ever had. But what I do have is determination and perseverance. I figure if I can somehow teach them to use their fine brains God has given them to their full potential and never give up, they could change the world...and I think they have a responsibility to do so.  I had a fun facebook discussion with a friend about perseverance. I can't remember his quote, but I wrote the one I had grown up with: Success is 1 % inspiration and 99% perspiration. I believe it was Woody Allen who said most of success was just showing up. I would add to that- showing up day after day after day, till the job is done.

It is very easy to be inspired. It is much more difficult to follow that inspiration to completion, because completing a work always involves hard, and often tedious, laborious persistence. It is very discouraging to me to see half finished projects gathering dust. God warns us of this tendency to stop when the going gets tough. There are twice as many references to perseverance as to  inspired in the Bible. Those who persevere are told they are blessed, will develop character, will lead to hope, will be commended.  In counterpoint, in Hosea, the inspired person is called a maniac. Inspiration is a good beginning, but it is never where we should end. Inspiration should always be transformed into something that draws us nearer to the end. We are inspired upon hearing the command, but we must persevere to complete it. It may be the inspiration of a genius to reduce the margins, but someone still has to write the text that must fit the page. And that takes effort.

"Speaking of inspiring genius, look at this," I said showing Asherel the picture of the kayak skiing down the mountain. I just couldn't get over what maniac would think to do this.
"Fun!" she said.
"Dangerous," I said, thinking this is one project I am not inspired to bring to fruition.

James 1: 12
¹² Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

The Water is Bluer on the Other Side

It is good to know that in an emergency, Honeybun recognizes the need to obey without pause. We hadn't known that....before yesterday.

Up until now, we have been training the dogs to stay in the kayak on the large flat kayak (not Asherel's beloved "sit in" kayak), and only at the small lake where the most dangerous thing we have to contend with are snapping turtles. We had practiced trying to haul Honeybun in the boat should she fall out, but Asherel just was not strong enough to lift a soaked dog out of deep water herself. We practiced close to shore. However, we have kayaked on the lake many times now and felt HB was ready for a new challenge. She has never jumped out of the boat. Lucky is still unpredictable, and he may never be ready to kayak anywhere but the lake. We decided it was time to try the Catawba river with HB. Lots of people kayak in the area we go to, and the river is narrow and not very deep.
It is deep enough to drown in, of course, but we were determined not to do that and spoil the day. And for all you worrywarts, we do wear life jackets, even HB.

Asherel begged me to let her try HB in her "sit in" kayak. I had not thought it would work, but actually HB snuggled in the front of the the kayak body happily with her natural "den seeking" instincts and we practiced along the shore. Since Asherel was shoveling food in the dog's greedy little mouth, HB was content and all seemed well.

Within seconds of gliding into the deep water, a motorboat whizzed by and tsunami waves raced under our boat. HB had never seen a motorboat, let alone a tsunami, but all she did was perk her ears and furrow her brow. As of yet, she was still trusting we knew what we were doing.
We kayaked to a popular sandbar and pulled our boats ashore. We ate the lunch I had packed and watched a blue heron fly among the opposite shoreline tree tops. A flotilla of kayakers stopped to swim and rest and then floated away again.

After lunch it was time for serious kayaking. I have discovered that Asherel does not love the kayaking part of kayaking. She loves the dog being in a boat with her, and she loves getting to the sandbar to swim, and she loves the snacks I pack for us to kayak with..... but the actual kayaking part- not so much. However, I had acceded to her request to use her boat,not the safer flat top boat, and I had packed a fantastic lunch, and I had let her swim her dog at the sandbar.

"It is my turn now," I told her, "Now we will kayak, use these boats for what they were intended for, not just for floating kennels."

She acquiesced, finally, and except for asking, "What time is it?" 7,543 times, showed no other indication of impatience. We wanted to see if we could find the boat launch area that is half the price of the place we had parked. However, 40 minutes of kayaking up river still yielded no sight of our goal, and Asherel was tired of pretending she was still having fun. It was a hot day and HB was whining. So we pulled over to shallow water, and HB hopped out of the boat. She dragged the laughing Asherel like a cart horse all over the shallow lagoon. Asherel was half-heartedly telling her to stop, come, and all those dog commands that some dogs obey. But HB was having fun racing through the water, towing the boat behind her.

Then suddenly, I heard Asherel's voice become deep and commanding.
"Honeybun, come!" she bellowed.
Honeybun whisked around to the boat, and jumped in. Asherel grabbed her paddle and with HB still standing one paw not quite in, Asherel began paddling like a windmill towards me. As she approached, her face a worried crease I rarely see on this unflappable kid, she said, "Snake."

Even the word snake makes me nauseous. I just cannot abide snakes, particularly since so many of them in NC are poisonous. I told her to have HB sit, so she paused long enough to do that, and we paddled hurriedly out of there.
"How big?" I asked, when we were a safe distance away.
"3-4 feet, and this big around." She held her fingers in a 5 or 6 inch circle. Her description of the color and markings makes me pretty sure it was a copperhead. Oh horrors. Ick.

So we learned two things. Number one, we will only get out of the boat at the swimming sand bar where everyone goes. The water is too disturbed too frequently for snakes to want to hang out there. Number two, HB listens to and understands emergency commands.

As we neared our docking area, I heard a splash.
"Honeybun," said Asherel, "What are you doing?"
Honeybun was ignoring lesson number one, and swimming. The water was still quite deep so no snakes were a threat but I sure didn't want to go anywhere near the shore where snakes by the millions were surely lurking.

I pulled my kayak up beside the swimming dog, and as Asherel hoisted, I got close enough so HB could brace a back paw against my boat. With a leap, she managed to get back in Asherel's boat.

Lesson 3 was a good one- with both boats we could haul a dog out of deep water.

We don't know why she jumped in. We suspect she was just plain tired of kayaking and wanted to be somewhere other than the boat. She quickly realized that swimming was exhausting, and the water was not any more fun than the boat, and a lot more work. In the end, in both minor emergencies that day, she decided her master really did know best.

It is so easy to ignore what is asked of us, expected of us, even required of us. The grass is always greener and the water always bluer where we are told not to wander. It is so easy to think of obedience as restricting, as undesirable. Good masters know that, and smart dogs eventually learn that the Master really does have their best interests at heart.

Deuteronomy 4:30
When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and obey him.