be you upstanding

--July 7th, 2010--

That is one of my favorite phrases in the Eng­lish (as opposed to Amer­i­can) lan­guage.  “Be you upstand­ing,” intones the music mas­ter at Avery’s school, at the end of the Sum­mer Con­cert (I shall leave it to you to find Avery in this photo!), for all of us to clear our throats and sing “I Vow To Thee My Coun­try.”  Now, at times like this, I put aside the small feel­ing that “my coun­try” is not this one, because at moments when I am at my child’s school, cel­e­brat­ing the beauty of her Eng­lish edu­ca­tion, it IS my coun­try.  I’m more than happy to vow to it.

This coun­try has given us so much: Avery’s place at her two blessed schools, our friends who find our Amer­i­can­ness a beloved trait, the pageantry of Avery rid­ing in Hyde Park, the gor­geous Eng­lish pro­duce in our gro­cery stores, the peo­ple who have made our lives here a com­plete joy.  Rocco, my dar­ling ten­nis instruc­tor, who loves noth­ing more than for me to bring him an apple and banana cake, and then spend an hour teach­ing me to heal my ten­nis elbow.  Tony, my fish­mon­ger, who was happy to wave me off to Amer­ica, but said he’d miss my “cus­tom.”  Brooks, the snack place of choice, with its piles of delec­table brown­ies, lemon tarts and cook­ies for Avery’s after-school treats, glad that I came to tell them we were leav­ing for 52 days… “We’d have thought you stopped lov­ing us!” they said, laugh­ing.  “See you in September.”

The suit­cases are packed: lacrosse sticks for a cer­tain some­one who we are sure will LOVE them, red china tea sets for a cou­ple of other small peo­ple who will clap their hands in glee, birth­day presents for my mother, my cher­ished apron folded care­fully in antic­i­pa­tion of many, MANY cel­e­bra­tory meals to be cooked for Amer­i­can fam­ily and friends, favorite nov­els we can’t live with­out for two months, bathing suits for the POOL, recipes I’ve put aside all spring and sum­mer, plan­ning to cook them “when I have time for some­thing new that might bomb.”

The last gifts have been given to teach­ers, the last hugs to friends leav­ing for board­ing school, the last trip to Lost Prop­erty to sort through some unex­pected junk, includ­ing a first for me: a packet of cig­a­rettes?  Come on, girls, you are too bright for this!  The last sweaty game of ten­nis, the last filled dish of cat food… all those funny mile­stones that mean the end of our Lon­don life, the never-neverland of travel tomor­row, and then… HOME.

So… Be you upstand­ing.  Give your vows to those who love you, whether it’s Amer­ica or Eng­land, or BOTH.  That’s the glory of our lives!  We get both.  See you in the States.

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3 Responses to “be you upstanding”

  1. Jo:

    Safe jour­neys dear friends…big news at this end — I have a new flat! Divine with french doors lead­ing out to a lovely, mature Eng­lish gar­den — More when we can talk! Enjoy the Con­necti­cut coun­try­side and all your ears of deli­cious white corn! Love, Jo

    July 8th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
  2. kristen:

    Safely here, dear­est! But your news is won­der­ful! Can you have… a kitty? I can­not wait to hear all about it, and then… VISIT when­ever you say! We are about to fos­ter three kit­tens next week, and just had our first corn for din­ner this evening with bison burg­ers… tomor­row my sis­ter and her brood come! It’s glo­ri­ous, but we’re still a bit sleepy.

    July 10th, 2010 at 1:48 am
  3. gixxer guy:

    My whole issue is my lips move when I think.

    Sent from my iPhone 4G

    July 15th, 2010 at 11:03 am

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