Playing Jacks and Packing Light: The Odd Outlier Abilities I Have and Have not Got

Katherine today.

Several unrelated events met up recently to bring back the Malcolm Gladwell book about why folks succeed and where unique abilities originate.  Outliers makes me feel smart because it champions quantity as a vehicle to success.  10,000 repetitions of a skill creates extraordinary performance.  That means all those millions of Big Chief pages I made sophomores write were really valuable.  I believe strongly that schools suffer because drill work and repetition and quantity have been replaced with a bogus belief that poured-over long-time quality efforts lead to the same effect with less homework.  The effort to teach literacy without reading as homework is among the most baffling things I see in education.

I'm wandering though.  I was thinking about playing jacks and Jim's first comment to me this morning: "I'm going to take a record low number of things to Jenny Lake this time."  Good morning to you too sweetie.

I'll start with the packing.   Jim would never say anything like that in the morning if he hadn't been thinking about it and there is absolutely no sub-level manipulation or condemnation of my increasingly futile attempt to pack well.  I suck at packing.  I haven't even come close to 10,000 repetitions so my chances for improvement are limited and I just can't stomach the idea of practice packing.  Jim is a natural.  He hates clothes.

Jim has so many packing advantages.   His daywear consists of one outfit and he's just dealing with variations on a theme.  There are long shorts that go to the gym or go kayaking or go hiking or play tennis.  Most are black.  He couples these shorts with T-shirts--mostly grey.  Some have sleeves.  Some don't.  Sometimes he wears tennis shoes.  Sometimes he wears Keens or hiking shoes or flip flops.  He grabs a stack of black shorts and grey T-shirts and adds a lightweight jacket and he is done.  He brings some jeans and "good" T-shirts and a sport coat to cover nice nights out.  Maybe some dress loafers.  If he forgets anything, it's underwear.  This pretty much has him covered for two whole weeks.  If the weather is cold and wet, he's good.  If the weather is hot and icky, he's good.  He is the lowest maintenance fellow imaginable.  When he declared he was taking less than usual it occurred to me he might really mean it.  He is not a practiced packer honed by limitless travel opportunities--he just hates wearing clothes.  Two weeks is a long time to do with less than he normally brings in my mind.  I will try not to worry about this.

He also needs no potions or lotions.  He can use the shampoos and soaps at the hotel and his skin doesn't seem to wrinkle or look much different.  He doesn't have the nasty skin problems I deal with since the two cancer battles.  Recently,  I saw an age spot on his right arm and it took me aback.  I'd point it out to him, but he'd worry about it for several days.  I'm pretty sure I shouldn't mention it here either, but I can't edit my every thought.

On my side, there are all sorts of packing hurdles so I pack too much.  I need all sorts of potions for wrinkles and eczema (radiation treatments suck).  Eczema and fragrances are a really bad combo--no hotel products for me.  I really miss getting all excited when the hotel has really good shampoos and lotions and it feels like a treat.  There's something depressing about buying your skin creams at Walgreens instead of Nordstrom.

I also pack the wrong stuff.  I try to be prepared.  I make lists.  I look up weather reports.  The weather changes and my lists match some ideal for every situation that makes the usual and probable difficult to deal with when I arrive.  This is where Cosmic Banditos is the best book ever.  Almost every chapter ends with this phrase: "And then things didn't go according to plan."  These are words to live by.

I find myself with several problems.  I know lady light packers who mix and match and everything they bring along  (think Janet Simmons).  It's a lot like Jim's black/grey motif.  This is hard for me to do.  I'm a girl who doesn't really believe in matching so I can't pull out a stack of anything that would work that way.  You come stare at my closet and find a way to mix and match your way through that forest.

Shoes are a packing problem for me when I fly  If you don't believe in matching, you need to bring a lot of pairs of shoes to figure things out so you DON'T match.  Flying and multiple shoe options are out.  I use up any spare weight on a plane in my eczema stuff anyway.  My limited footgear is only one reason I'm not wild about flying.

When we are on the road, I bring the shoes I want.  I'm good enough to limit myself to one pair of cowboy boots, but that's about the only limit I acknowledge.  I bring multiple flip flops, some spiky heels, some tennis shoes, some water shoes, and one pair of yummy cowboy boots.  It's really hard to explain why this is necessary, but it is and I know this hampers the light packing ability.  I really like shoes.  Really.

The weather never works the way it's supposed to either.  I look it up online.  I plan accordingly.  Then I worry about what will happen if the weather is wrong and it always is.  I decide to pack for all kinds of weather to compensate.  I end up with a little bit of stuff for every possibility and it never works out.

At Jenny Lake the weather ranges are wide and I worry about weather stretches.  It's always chilly when we arrive, but that can last a day or a week.  It's always too hot when we leave and the deer flies are annoying, but you can never tell if that will be just hitting as we leave or whether the heat will have been there for over a week.  It's the time lengths that do me in and there's never been a clear cut pattern there and I'm a girl who likes patterns.  I wonder if we will be in the wind and rain a lot?  This year, I feel pretty good about the wind and rain part at least.  I used our yearly REI dividend to help pay for these cool light weight wind/rain jackets that take no space at all.  The North Face description indicated they were great for scaling peaks.  That's us.  Besides,  I'm hoping the teeny jacket lowers my packing mass considerably.

Enough of that.  If Outliers is correct, I need a lot more travel to improve.  Jacks, on the other hand, is something I am practiced at and I'm getting ready to get in playing shape.

There are few devotees of jacks left.  When I was a kid, we played for hours and hours and hours.  I bet I got 10,000 reps in third grade alone.  Later on I played jacks with students during informal lunches we had with kids in our adjoining classrooms.  I beat most of determined teenagers wanting to bring down their Honors English teacher.  I laid some in waste.  Two or three boys became so obsessed they beat me.  I have really good memories of playing jacks with so many kids.

Yesterday when we went to Chris's house for a Father's Day Brunch, I realized it was time to think about teaching Brooklyn and Sammi to play and love jacks.  There are challenges.  Sammi is partially paralyzed and modifications will be necessary if she wants to play.  I can do that.  Brooklyn, on the other hand, is reluctant to do anything that doesn't require princess attire.  Brooklyn's starts all conversations with me about potential outings by asking if walking will be involved.  Walking is on Brooklyn's no-fun list.  That limits almost every good time I can think of.  Jacks, however involves no walking.  I just need to find a pink outfit covered in princesses or find a movie where a princess plays jacks.  Normally I just get out my jacks and start to dazzle my audience.  Brooklyn doesn't dazzle easily.  I'm not worried though.  She's young and I've got time to strategize.

It seems so odd to me that I can't pack a suitcase with normal restraint, but I can still sit on the floor and play a nasty round of jacks.  Repetition is everything.  Schools should take note.  Kids will read better if they read until their eyes fall out.  Kids will write better if they write until their arms fall off.  Practice is everything.  Quantity is everything when you are a beginner.  Homework is good.  I feel sure of it.

That's enough for now though.  I am going to restrain myself at least here.  Besides, I want to practice some jacks.