Straight "A's"

The twins have straight “A’s” so far. Living with me and in a tipi on a hilltop one-third of the time during the school year, with their mother in a house near the creek two-thirds, they are making this transition.

They are not brilliant the way that some of their friends are brilliant: they work, they slog, they are able at age 13 to put in four hours on a project, they do their homework. That will serve them better, I think.

I barked at them last week for not setting aside enough time to study for the Social Studies test, I growled when they told me that was why they did not know all the answers. I felt like the stupid one when told one girl scored 54 out of 50 with the extra credit, the other 53 out of 50. “I missed four but got seven of the extra credit,” she explained.

I felt stupid only until I heard her pride as she told me, without words but with the inflection in her voice, “See, Dada, I have got this under control.” It is not supposed to be easy, struggle in a safe environment is learning essential lessons.

Each with her own style, her own strength, the twins know they are different with their golden brown skin and deep black hair with highlights of henna when the sun watches them with an oblique glance, almost tomboys with their lack of understanding of girly girls, not quite getting that obsession with showing too much to boys (they are young, it may come soon).

We celebrate independence, talk about the loneliness of being on the outside, hint at the painful joy of self-direction. The day will come when I introduce them to the nobility of the outlaw, why the outlaw is always necessary, how the outlaw gives herds an option, a warning, a dynamic force that highlights the dangers of conformity.

But now there is the girls’ quiet knowing they are enveloped in grace: wrapped in the love of those close to them, part of a universe that truly intends them no harm, a welcome part of creation and free to create what they want to see, create themselves, create their days.