Joy Amidst the Hard Stuff
A reflection on welcoming a new dog into your life, and everything that comes with it
I’m not going to bury the lede: the Mulders have adopted a new dog!
We adopted him from the humane society, so we don’t know his full backstory. He seems to have been in a family before, because he understands some things about how being a house works. (We’ve had a few accidents, but that is normal as he’s learning to communicate with us, and we’re learning to communicate with him.) He is very clearly not kennel-trained, so that’s been an adventure for us to figure out. The folks at the human society estimated that he’s about a year old, so he’s not quite a puppy anymore, but still has that puppy energy and is chewing on everything.
So there have been some very real challenges and frustrations. Cleaning up dog poop off the carpet is no fun. Dealing with getting him comfy with the kennel has been no fun. Trying to get him to stop nibbling on my fingers all the time—while super cute—is no fun.
But there are real joys and benefits! He is very affectionate. He is so snuggly in the morning when I’m having my cup of coffee and devotions. He loves to walk and sniff and explore his new neighborhood. He is hilarious in the evenings when he sprawls out on his back on the couch next to my wife. He loves to play fetch with his tennis ball and tug-o-war with his rope, and chomps on his squeaky toy and carries it around the house with him.
Adjusting to the new pup is frustrating. But it’s so, so joyful as well. And, for me at least, the joys overshadow the frustrations by far.
This has me thinking about the work we get to do as educators too. It’s hard work, and sometimes frustrating. But oh, how joyful it is as well! And, for me at least, the joys outweigh the frustrations. Maybe there are “cleaning poop off the carpet” moments in teaching—hopefully not literally, but I suppose it depends on the grade level of your students! But I hope that you, like me, will find that the joys bring so much satisfaction, that they outweigh those moments of frustration.
Dave’s Faves
Here are three things I’m absolutely loving right now that I hope you might love too…
Dave’s Fave #1: Daredevil: Born Again
Okay, okay…I’m a superhero nerd, and I completely own it. Particularly Marvel—I love the films, I love the TV series. And Daredevil? He’s such an interesting character: a vigilante, for sure, but one that is motivated in some significant ways by his faith. (That might sound odd for a comic book superhero, but it makes for a really intriguing character!) Daredevil is blind, but his superpower is that his other senses are incredibly heightened, particularly his sense of hearing, which is so acute that it functions very much like sonar, so he can sort of visualize his surroundings, which makes him a formidable fighter.
I really enjoyed the Netflix’s Daredevil series that started way back in 2015. (Fair warning, it’s super violent—Daredevil is a “street” hero, brawling with gangsters and other baddies to save and protect his neighborhood in Hell’s Kitchen in New York City.) And now, Disney is bringing the character into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And best of all, for me at least, is that they kept Charlie Cox playing the title character, because he is brilliant as both Daredevil as well as his secret identity, lawyer Matt Murdock.
Daredevil: Born Again is currently playing on Disney+ and coming out episode by episode. I’m thoroughly enjoying it! The new series is working many of the characters from the previous Netflix series, and the storylines are interesting, and bringing depth to the relationships between characters. Fair warning: there is a lot of (realistic) fighting and violence, and plenty of foul language, and some thematic elements that are quite disturbing. (One of Daredevil’s foes is a serial killer who is a terrifying face of evil in the city.) But it also raises important, pertinent questions about what people should do in the face of great injustice and evil, and does so in complex, nuanced ways where it’s not just good guys in white hats and bad guys in black hats shooting at each other at high noon. With those caveats, this series has my recommendation, though I also should be cautious to say that I haven’t seen the whole series yet, as new episodes are still being released.
Dave’s Fave #2: Our latest episode of Hallway Conversations
About a month ago I had the pleasure of meeting a new friend in person for the first time. Shaun Brooker serves as Head of School at Hamilton Christian School in Hamilton, New Zealand. Shaun and I have known each other online for some time, but we had never had the pleasure of meeting in person. He is a deep thinker, a passionate leader, and a hilarious wit. It was wonderful for me to be able to sit in on a session he presented at the Converge conference in Orlando, and My Hallway Conversations colleagues and I agreed that we definitely had to try and get him on the show for an interview.
And…he agreed! Our latest episode was our conversation with Shaun, and if you are a Christian in education, I think you’ll find plenty of food for thought that I hope will spark some hallway conversations of your own after you listen. Check it out here: Episode 121: Deepening Our Understanding of Christian Education (a conversation with Shaun Brooker) or you can always find us in your favorite podcast app by searching for “Hallway Conversations.”
Dave’s Fave #3: “Soap” by the Oh Hellos
I know I’ve shared the Oh Hellos in this newsletter several times before. They swiftly became one of my favorite bands a few years ago, and they have been at or near the top of my Spotify Wrapped each year for the past couple. Their song “Soap” was my most-played song in the month of March. It’s off of their 2020 album, Zephyrus, which is full of great songs. But this one has such a great message for our fractured times: it’s worth trying to work things out, even when you find yourself at odds with other people. Here’s a bit of the lyrics:
Oh no, I think I'm not quite ready
To let you circle the drain
All the things we've broken
Can be puzzled together again
All your sums and your pieces
Are enough to clean up
All the messes you've made
I think that you're worth keeping around
I think you're worth holding onto
I hope you’ll give it a listen, and drop a comment to let me know what you think.
The Last Word!
The old saying is that a picture is worth 1000 words, so for the last word today, just another photo of my new furry friend…
Grace and peace to you all, friends. May you find more joy than frustration in the things you get to do in your life—whether adjusting a new furry friend to your home, or in teaching, or in whatever other big or small things your week holds for you.
