Opinion

“The business of life is the acquisition of memories. In the end that’s all there is,” said the stern but sentimental character, Mr. Carson in an episode of the British historical drama series, Downton Abbey. As the words escaped his lips, I felt their importance.

Maybe I have told this story a hundred times at various places where I speak to groups wherever it might be. If you have read this before I will get to something about the migrating birds, I promised to write about last week.

We have probably all seen this in our pasture, especially this time of the year. Its tall stem is the most noticeable feature in many fields.

There is a craze sweeping the nation. People of all ages have flocked to this, um, well, I would call it an activity or a game but others call it a sport.

Aesop has a fable that tells the story of two frogs that lived in the same pool of water. During the hot summer, the pool dried up. The frogs who need water to thrive, set out to find another place to live. They passed a deep well full of water. One frog said to the other that they should make this well their new home. The other frog erring on the side of caution, questioned his friend about what they would do if the deep water failed them, and they couldn’t get out of the cavernous well.

It’s the time of year in Arkansas public schools when ACT Aspire test results are released. These tests no more prove that a child or teacher is doing their job and learning is taking place, than quarterly grades determine a child’s success in life. Grading can be subjective, and some children are not adept at test taking.

Can you believe it is just about the half-way mark for summer? If your kids are anything like mine, the battle cries of, “We are bored!” and “What are we doing today?” have started to fill the time between waking up and finishing my first cup of coffee. I always like to hold out on some tricks up my sleeve for August. July is often filled with family visits, sleeping late and the standard quo ice cream, bike trips, pool days and backyard shenanigans. It’s busy and exciting and non-stop with late nights and jam-packed days. Enter August. The back-to-school ads start popping up, supply lists come home and the reading project from school that’s been hanging from the fridge finally gets looked at. Even with all of that, fear not, because there is still plenty of time to kick back and check some items off the “list o’fun”.

Rob Perez CherryRoad Columnist Everything is summer. Summer time.