Feels Bad, Man

My son is the worst player on his basketball team.

He played his first game today, and he just doesn't get it. He's only 7 years old, so it's not that big of a deal. Our car broke down a couple weeks ago (Of course it was FINE until it was time to take him to his second practice and then it wouldn't start), and we didn't get it fixed until after his third basketball practice, which he also missed.

Then it was time for game 1, and we had just gotten our car back from the shop. Obviously he didn't play, but I did take him to at least see his team members again and watch how a game works. I don't think he's really ever watched a basketball game before(!). The coaches had already forgotten who he was, and then when I took him to practice last Wednesday, the coaches still didn't remember him. *sigh*

Practice on Wednesday was horrible. Well, the drills went okay. But when they played a practice game, he didn't seem to even really know they were playing a game. When they had to run to the other side of the court, he would slide on his knees, every time. *facepalm*

Part of his difficulty, aside from missing 2 practices and a game, is that he's homeschooled.  Technically unschooled. Meaning he learns what he wants, when he wants. It's not structured, AT ALL. (I mean, unless he asks us for it to be.) Usually I think of a basketball team full of 7-year-olds to not be very structured at all -- and his team isn't, especially compared to the other 2 teams they have played -- but it's still WAY more structured than anything he's done since he went to Montessori School when he was 3.

We were totally not anticipating that.

Since we are strange parents, I mean, we are unschooling, we believe there is a lot to be learned from video games. So we ran out and got NBA 2K11. We saw it had great reviews, so perfect! He's only got to play it once before his game today... and when you don't know sports very well, the sports games these days are a little overwhelming. *sigh* He plays Starcraft though, so I know he can figure it out. We just don't have a lot of time, and I certainly don't want to push him too hard and make him hate basketball. Because basketball is awesome.

I'll grab some basketball videos for him to watch and have him play NBA 2K11 some more (playing video games is something usually reserved as huge prizes, so he should be a little excited, I hope) and hopefully we have time to play with him without getting too frustrated.

This is on top of all sorts of other random stressful things that have been occurring in the past couple of weeks, and I'm starting to question whether or not I'm doing things "right." Maybe unschooling isn't the best idea, maybe I should keep my job, maybe I can't do any of it....

Everyone has those types of thoughts, I know I'm not alone.
What do you do to get yourself out of a rut?

Today, I'm going to watch one of my favorite Alan Watts videos. I freaking love Alan Watts- listening to recordings of him or reading his books usually instantly makes me feel better. This short little cartoon is produced by Matt Stone and Trey Parker. =D



I feel better already. =)

Tathata

I was listening to Alan Watts last night as I was falling asleep (I like the thought that positive words affect our subconscious while sleeping :), and I heard something awesome. Unfortunately, I'm unable to find the audio on youtube; however, if it were on youtube, I'm sure it would be stuck in the middle of a long video anyway. Although I think everyone should hear every word Alan Watts has ever recorded, I'd like to get straight to the point. So here it is in text (I found it on Google Books):

Actually, some of the words that the Buddhists use for the basic energy of the word really do not mean anything at all.  The word tathata, which in Sanskrit for "suchness" or "vastness," really means something more like "da-da-da," based on the word tat, which in Sanskrit means "that."  In Sanskrit existence is described as tat tvam asi, "Thou art that," or in modern American, "You're it."  But da-da is the first sound a baby makes when it comes into the world because the baby looks around and says, "da, da, da, da, da."  "That, that, that, that, that!"  Fathers flatter themselves and think their baby is saying "da-da" for "daddy," but according to the Buddhist philosophy this entire universe is one da-da-da, which means then thousand functions, ten thousand things, or one suchness, and we are all one suchness.

This is especially relevant to me because we have a 10-month-old baby, and just the other day I was listening to him saying "Da-da-da, da, DA," and suspecting that maybe he was just trying to say "That!" Now I know why!

(Random baby saying "da-da")

Here is the book quoted above on Amazon. One of my life goals is to read every Alan Watts book (progress of which has ground to a halt in part because of said baby!). So I definitely recommend it!