Scripture Study


At 8:30am sharp (but not that sharp really) Anson and I gather at this table to do "home school" before he heads out to work on the ranch. He makes himself breakfast while I ask his opinions on "current events" and we check in on his expanding emotions. Next we spend a few minutes on a "financial literacy book for teens" (he hates it, but I am learning so much!). After that, we take turns reading the bible. 

And by the bible I mean: The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

It's five Hitchhiker novels in one book to rule them all. We have been reading near-daily since October and we are only on the third novel (having finished the second one this morning, thank you). We might be done with the entire volume by the time he is 18 and ready to move out. If we're lucky.

The move to La Sal hasn't been easy for Anson. He misses his friends. He feels isolated (which, fair). He's navigating his coming-of-age on a dusty, lonely ranch full of shit and cows, where tumbleweeds are often unironically rolling down the quiet highway.

But every morning we got Arthur Dent and the two heads of Zaphod Beezlebrox making us laugh out loud over my coffee and his toast. And we have daily conversations about the absurdity of the universe and the organisms that inhabit it, as well as the natural laws that throw it into constant chaos. And when I think about my own upbringing and my salvation depending on zealously studying books that were likewise absurd and full of chaos, machismo and stupidity, I am happy for Anson. Happy that he knows the book we are reading is just a work of brilliant fiction. Happy he knows his eternity doesn't require his taking these things seriously. Happy we can have interesting conversations about how the world was created that doesn't demand him to ascribe to any dogma.

It may not have been his favorite thing, us moving here, but I want to believe that how we're choosing to school him this year will be beneficial. When it comes to planning for adulthood I am hoping that a daily breakfast of current events, possible emotive moments, financial literacy (for teens!) and a large dose of the only truth I know: the world is chaotic and no one knows what is going on, is enough. 

Oh...and a towel. You must have that.





(Hitchhiker's joke.)




 

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