First, it is annoying to have to learn another mnemonic. I have liked singing “My very educated mother! Just served us nine pizza pies!” Well, what’s on the menu now?
I am certain that someone will eventually come up with a new mnemonic. Meanwhile, I will be forced to start out singing—”My very educated mother! Just served us nine…”—and then just stop, while my children and I blink at one another and I eventually feel compelled to fill the silence with some sort of explanation.
It seems so time-consuming. So…messy. And disordered.
Doubtless, this decision, made by the International Astronomical Union only days ago, will require some cleaning up. Paul Kobasha, editor-in-chief of World Book encyclopedia in Chicago, said that World Book will have to change an estimated 30 articles. And all those astronomy books resting neatly on your science shelf? Obsolete.
But all in all, is it really that big of a deal? We’re talking the planet Pluto here. Little Pluto, the cold planet. Little Pluto, with its odd, elliptical orbit and its tendency to tag alongside of Neptune. Tiny little Pluto! Even your moon is as big (almost) as you are!
Oh Pluto, late have we loved you!
Aha. I think I’m beginning to get it. I think I know why I’ve been so bothered.
We haven’t as a homeschooling family gotten to know the planet Pluto in a way I find acceptable. We haven’t made a model of the solar system yet. We haven’t (confession time) really studied all nine planets in any depth whatsoever.
In short, this teacher mom does not feel ready to move on.
For me, perhaps the loss of Pluto symbolizes every dormant ambition of my heart, every dream temporarily deferred. There is so much that I want to get to but have not yet gotten to—not yet, anyway. In thinking and praying about why I’ve been so darn…depressed about Pluto’s new and fallen status—a dwarf planet! Where’s the dignity in that?—I have come to realize something helpful.
I am a very impatient person.
I am a woman for whom these waters of impatience run deep. I am a woman who gets tempted, on her bad days, to see not what we’re accomplishing as a family but instead, who focuses miserably on what remains to be done. I am a teacher who sometimes (but not always) feels a strong sense of guilt over everything I’m not teaching my children, as if I could singlehandedly and in a superhero-type fashion be teaching it all.
Well, Maggie, here’s the rub: learning is a process. It is lifelong. And furthermore, all this impatience will only yield over time to the rotten fruits of guilt and anxiety. So do away with it.
And hey! Do you know what? We are learning about the planet Pluto as I type. Today over lunch we were discussing its sudden, sad demotion. John Michael expressed a shoulder-shrugging “Oh well!” and Stephen just looked curious, but Maria—funny, 5-year-old Maria—murmured, “Really? Pluto’s not a planet anymore? Really?”
So here we go! We are off on an impromptu unit study! All thanks to the guys and gals of the International Astronomical Union.
Let us end this meditation with a prayer and a song. Here’s to keeping the glass (or in this case, bowl) half full:
[To be sung to the tune of “If you’re happy and you know it”]: Oh, My Very Eager Mom Just Served Us Nuts! Oh, My Very Eager Mom Just Served Us Nuts! They are yummy and nutritious; there are eight and they’re delicious! Oh, My Very Eager Mom Just Served Us Nuts!”
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