Spelling Bees and the Honey of life

Last night my son was in a Spelling Bee.

He joined it because his class needed a 7th player to qualify and he raised his hand, certainly not because he has a burning desire to spell. Very few 11 year old boys do. They would rather use words as targets out in the woods with their BB guns.

No ,I think he did it to impress a certain brown eyed girl standing next to him.

He declared to us at dinner, that he was in the Spelling Bee and it was no big deal if he did well or not.To which I replied (in Mom tone) "Don't you want to at least do your best? "

He thought about it and looked out the window.

On the way to the Spelling Bee, in the car, he mentioned he was feeling butterflies.

His dad said "Hey if it was me, I'd be out on the first word."

We exchanged scaredy-cat glances.I said "Just do your best and enjoy the moment of being at the table, so to speak."

The kids were all so keyed up and nervous , and the picture taking was done prior to the Bee...apparently some kids get pretty upset and it makes for bad photos afterward.

Spelling Bees are done in 'rounds" if a word is misspelled, the child is out and the next child tries and so on and so on. Once they go through #1 through #however many are in the bee, it starts the next round.

My son made the first round, thank God he didn't miss his first word...which was "broadleaf" by the way.

Then came round two.

The word was "chinchilla"....what? chinchilla? are you serious? Why can't it be ninja, like the word before, or football or jedi?

Four kids missed it, then our son.

He missed it, only after he asked them to repeat it, place of origin,and use it in a sentence...excellent stall tactics.

When a kid misses a word, he/she has the option to quietly sit with the parents or go to a special room where it's okay to cry or whine or whatever.

He sat with us. I was proud of that decision.

And we watched the smartest kid in his class get eliminated next and the not so smart kid hang in 'til the final three.

The smartest kid in the class, took it hard...the not so smart kid was living a dream and had a smile a mile wide.

As the round went on, they were dropping like flies...

The final two where brother and sister and it went on for awhile. It was incredible to watch and my nerves were frayed like a pair of seventies bell bottom jeans.

The sister won, and the word was "portfolio"....I don't think I even KNEW that word at 11 years old.

Most of the parents remarked how they themselves couldn't spell many of the words...I kept my mouth shut on that one.

We hugged our son, told him we were proud of him and how brave he was to stand up and go for it...he was a bit upset about leaving on the second word, but we joked about the word chinchilla and he was laughing by the time we got home.

I made sure not to say how life is one big Spelling Bee or make some stupid parent remark about how every now and then the status quo gets it's tree shaken...I think he already gets enough of that in golf.

I just sat back in the car seat and smiled when I realized that this is what I love about life, the wonderful seemingly randomness of it all, just like a big ol' Spelling Bee.

You can't control any of it but you can control whether you run and cry or whether you assess it , deal and try to find the good.

It is the sweetest and most golden thing and I call it the honey of life...because...can't have honey without the Bees ,now can we?

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