So as promised, an update on my crazy weekend. Saturday morning I got up and frantically baked biscotti for my church fellowship dinner the next day. No, I’m not suddenly becoming organized and getting things done ahead of time. I had to bake the biscotti in the morning because I was leaving at 11:30am and wouldn’t be back until the next day.
I took the subway to Grand Central and then got on a train to beautiful upstate New York. The reason? I was judging for a home school high school debate tournament. It was held at the Foundation for Economic Education. They promote free market economics and are closely affiliated with Ludwig von Mises. They have a lovely 19th century mansion in the town of Irvington (named for author Washington Irving). The mansion had lots of dark wood and old books. A very nice place to hang out.
I got roped into this because a kid from my church was debating in the tournament. I was a debater in college so it was extremely fun for me to be on the other side. I realized that in every round I judged, I had made my decision within the first 10 minutes or so. (So now I know that, back when I was debating, I really shouldn’t have worried about the second half all that much). I got to judge the final. That was a daunting responsibility.
In one debate I judged, the issue was whether or not America should more highly value isolationism. The affirmative debater argued that the Amish have a strong sense of community because of their isolationism. America needs a greater sense of community; ergo we should emulate the Amish and isolate ourselves.
yeah.
Judges fill out ballots with feedback for the debaters. I know how much debaters obsess over these so I tried to be very specific in my critiques. One guy was yelling a lot during his speech. I told him to “tone it down.” I told another guy to smile more.
The tournament was huge. There were over 200 students participating. I had waves of nostalgia seeing all those super-serious preternatural adult in their black suits, guys with slicked back hair, all those big debate boxes. I had a debate box once. I named it “Lawrence.” Sigh.
The parents of the debating kid from my church had invited me to stay the night at their house. That was a sweet thought. But they had to wait until the end of the awards ceremony before they could leave. That didn’t wrap up until 2 hours after I judged my last round.
Oh well. I got comfy in the library and read Timaeus, Plato’s dialogue on the creation of the earth. I am participating in a seminar on it next Tuesday. It’s a completely fascinating work, but quite hard to understand. Plato says that being is to becoming as truth is to belief. I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around that all day and I’m not quite there yet. (Actually, I’m not even “quite” there, I’m simply not there at all).
I successfully resisted the lure of a very large bowl of chocolate éclairs on a nearby table. I focused on my intellectual pleasures instead.
One we departed, I had a very nice time with the family from my church. On our way to their house we drove through Sleepy Hollow. The real, actual Sleepy Hollow! No headless horseman in sight. Alas.
We got in pretty late so it was a cup of tea and then off to bed. In the morning I drove to church with them. The fellowship dinner went quite well. I’m on the committee to plan out our summer getaway to the Poconos. (It’s basically a church retreat but for some reason we’re not allowed to call it that). We had our first meeting during the dinner.
And then I got home. Tomorrow is an Ikea day, Tuesday is the Plato seminar, there’s a possible concert on Thursday, Friday my parents come, and somewhere in between all that I have a huge amount of work to do. Wish me luck!
