Bragging on the Princess

Brag the First:

A recent e-mail exchange between Kasia and myself follows.

First e-mail: Kasia forwards to me an announcement that the new TobyMac CD has hit the stores.

I reply:

Are you asking me whether you can buy this CD? (Yes, you may; get the money from Babushka and I'll send her a check.)

Dad

And then I get this response:

i dont particularly want it, i just thought you would like to know it was out in case you wanted it. its totally new, not a remix cd.

Which is to say, my teenaged daughter went to the trouble of e-mailing me about a CD that she wasn't asking me to buy, because she thought I would want to have it. There will now be a two-minute pause to allow my beaming proudly at the fine character of my very thoughtful teenaged daughter.

Brag the Second:

Kasia, who is in ninth grade, has given me permission to post her extemporaneous TASS essay on, "Describe a Person who has made a Lasting Impression on You."

"Et Earello Endorenna utulien. Sinome maruvan ar Hildinyar tenn Ambar-metta." "Out of the Great Sea to Middle Earth I am come. In this place will I abide, unto then ending of the world." The first time I heard Aragorn singing his famous coronation song in the huge, crammed theatre the joy and uplifted spirit boiling in me at this climax pushed me out of my seat with a shout of release. As the stunned moviegoers turned to stare at the rude, shouting child I gave a shaky smile and sat down amidst whispers of "good job" and "nice going, loud mouth." Despite the embarassment, my love of Tolkien was sealed.

The physical signs of my obsession are many. On my shelf sit 15 books related to Tolkien, a binder containing a course in Quenya, or High Elvish, and three notebooks containging the events of the trilogy mapped out chronologically. Marked on my LOTR calender are December 25th (for when the Fellowship leaves Rivendell), March 25th (when the Ring is destroyed), and September 22nd (Frodo and Bilbo's birthday), all very important LOTR days. A large map of Middle Earth and a "Return of the King" wall hanging decorate my wall. A collectible Arwen doll sits on my dark chest of drawers. To say that Tolkien has affected my life is proven simply by looking around my room.

Behind the physical signs, though, are the emotional and mental marks Tolkien has left on my soul. Before Tolkien Kasia was an outgoing, immature child. She had no deep connections, a leaf blowing on the wind, floating through her days unaffected and shallow. Then one day she went to see a small movie called "The Fellowship of the Ring." By the end of the movie a fiery feeling had flared from the tips of my toes to the hairs on the top of my head. Over the next two months I pushed my sixth grade mind through the LOTR books. The difficult reading pushed my mind into a deep and mature environment. My shallow spirit found something worth delving into. I matured more over those two months than the last two years.

Today I am much deeper. My friends are all as close as family. My interests in language, music, and literature run very deep. (I have studied 5 languages, listen to music in 7 languages, and have actually read Beowulf on my own!) Thanks to Tolkien, this leaf is now firmly attached to the human tree, and I won't be blowing away anytime soon.

Which ain't bad for fifteen minutes, or however long they get to write those things.

And then there's Brag the Third, which isn't really a brag so much, I guess, as a sharing. For various reasons, our family has had an awfully rough time for the last couple of years, though I try not to whine too much on the blog; and it certainly hasn't been easy on Kasia. Here is a recent journal entry she shared with me tonight:

As the Princess Bride said, (and I know this quote isn't perfectly correct, but it's close) "our love is bound so strong that you cannot track it, not with 1000 hounds. And you cannot break it, not with 1000 swords." I agree, although my bond is not to the Dread Pirate Roberts. In fact, it is not with any mere guy. My bond is with my family. Sure we have problems, more than most in fact. It may appear to others that we are falling apart. For a long time, I believed that the swords of Satan, much stronger than Humperdincks, were breaking our bond. But we are still strong. We are a family. My stressed-out depressed father who never fails to show us all how much he really loves us and will do for us; my strong, caring mother who has lived her life for us; my new older sister Anya who is still discovering who we are; my untrusting, scared sister Kinya who is trying to find her place; my incredible brothers Sean and Kegan who are finally realizing that they actually do like us; my annoying selfless sister Merry who keeps me from my pride; my thoughtful sweet brother Rusty who is only beginning his lifelong struggle; and finally my strong stubborn Sally who has learned to care. We are bound together and despite all troubles, inside and out, we will hold true. Mom, Dad, Anya, Kinya, Sean, Kegan, Merry, Rusty, Sally, and I will stay strong past all swordfights with Satan because of God's Love that has bound us together so tightly.

To which Kasia appended the note, "So I don't know if this will help or not, but I started out writing a completely superficial journal entry simply for a grade, and ended up putting my real feelings on the page. Amazing how that works, huh?"

Yep. It does seem to work that way. Though not with this blog, I hasten to say -- all the feelings expressed on THIS blog are totally made up and insincere.