Lessons

Michael and Linda were seriously thrilled to get to know our kids and loved them for many reasons. They loved their intelligence and sensitivity. They loved their political commitments; when they found out that Jordan is an educated ACLU member and Aaron makes well-informed donations to Earth Justice and the Sea Turtle Conservancy, they were ready to adopt them both. Michael also loved how they were when they were with him on the mountain: they enjoyed the heck out of themselves, they looked out for each other, and they listened to him and did what he suggested on the skis, which apparently he considers to be somewhat novel.

I’m not surprised by any of this. Regarding the listening, I think our kids have been spoken to respectfully by most of the adults in their lives, so they might have less antipathy to listening than some. They also have had many positive experiences of lessons, in the sense of learning a targeted skill from a single adult -- choir, piano, etc. They wanted to learn to ski and Michael is a terrific teacher; why wouldn’t they listen?

There was another kind of lesson while they were there, which was that Jordan invited Linda to sit at the piano with him and learn a bit of jazz. Linda had been an accomplished classical piano player in the past, but when she lost her sight it became very difficult to learn any new material; there’s apparently not a sheet music equivalent for the visually impaired, and the audio instruction that she tried was still very visually oriented. During the evenings of ski week, Jordan explained jazz theory to Linda, and gave her hand-over-hand instruction, with what she said was great patience and kindness. Linda was extremely touched, and is loving what he taught her.