Billy Coffey
Billy Coffey

Staples and the human condition

August 3, 2009  

It’s often said people don’t miss what they don’t know, and that is a maxim proven true many times in my life. Like right now.

When I was a kid, back-to-school shopping involved little more than perusing the two aisles of office supplies at the local Roses, where the selection was limited and the quality was debatable. But now there’s Staples. If there had been a Staples when I was in school, I’m sure I would have roamed the aisles of notebooks and pencils with the same sense of wonder and excitement my children are displaying.

Shedding the outdoors for a classroom is now a call to arms. One look at the sheet of necessary supplies in my wife’s hand that came directly from the school officials confirms it. Pencils, notebook paper, backpack, glue, tape, composition book, erasers, and kid-friendly scissors are just a few of the necessary items. I feel like I’m sending my kids off to college rather than second grade and kindergarten.

Although I am at times not so patient a father, on this day and in this store understanding comes easy. My kids are regarding our trip here with the perfect blend of excitement and seriousness. A tiny seed of knowledge is being planted within them that somehow this supply shopping is no errand. In a few years it will sprout and grow into the knowledge that what they are doing is the physical manifestation of a spiritual truth. They will see this a holy rite, and a universal one at that.

Because if my children are anything like me, all this shopping and ogling over school supplies and all this excitement over starting a new year will likely one day be replaced by a determination not to screw things up yet again.

I was never a standout in school. Nowhere near honor-role caliber. Average at best. I suppose I had the smarts to do better and be more, but not the drive or discipline. What people thought of me and how I fit in mattered much more than learning the Pythagorean theorem or how photosynthesis worked. Then, and sometimes now, the things that really shouldn’t matter at all mattered very much.

For me, the best days of the school year were the first few and the last few. The first few because they always held the most promise. The last few because by then I had firmly entrenched myself in my yearly rut of getting by rather than pulling ahead, and just wanted everything over with.

But summer vacation is the Great Eraser, three months of sunshine and play that put enough distance between me and the previous nine months to suggest the next year might be mine to own. Back-to-school shopping would always cement that thought. All those fresh notebooks with empty pages waiting to be filled with knowledge? Pencils sharp and wood-scented, ready to chew on in deep thought? And of course there was the epitome of student organization, the Trapper Keeper. Those were the weapons I would wield in the battle against myself.

And it always worked for the first few weeks, after which those notebooks would be filled with doodles born of boredom and angst, the pencils would be thrown at either a classmate or the ceiling, and my Trapper Keeper would have been torn to shreds and abandoned in the bottom of my locker.

We have good intentions, don’t we? Every notion to make the next day our best, to rise above petty thoughts and empty words and become who we know we can be. And still every night we close our eyes with the nagging thoughts of who we let down and what we couldn’t measure up to.

Just as we can’t be the perfect student, we’ll never be the perfect people. Deep down we all know this. But we also know that just because our feet are stuck in the mud of this world doesn’t mean our hands can’t reach ever higher toward the sky. Just because we cannot fly doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stand tall.

That’s what I want my children to know as they walk these aisles.

(First published in the Staunton News Leader)
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Comments

  • Anne L.B.

    How grateful I am that no matter how many different ways I blow it, no matter how many times I fail God, no matter how many people I manage to untintentionally offend along the way, the Lord loves me and waits to restore me.

  • Peter P

    Back to school shopping was always one of my favourite things, but then, I'm a nerd.

    WHat I REALLY don't like about my children's school is that they provide all of the supplies. The kids are actually not allowed to take so much as a pencil.

    Ruins the last few weeks of summer, if you ask me!

    My son is starting school this year though… I may have to write a post about that!

  • Beth in NC

    Loved your post as always Billy. You did make me remember the sick feeling I would have in the pit of my stomach when fall would roll around.

    I would have to get up when it was still dark outside because I got on the bus at 6:30am! The sound of the crickets and frogs in late August will always take me back to those early mornings. Seriously, I can feel the anxiety over it even now. Ha.

    I hated going to school. Things improved my Junior and Senior years, but before then — just plain YUCK. :o [

  • katdish

    The older we get, it seems the less do-overs we get. But I love this time of year because it's wonderful to see my kids get excited about the clean slate of a new school year.

    Very good post, Billy.

  • Chatty Kelly Combs

    I always wanted a Trapper Keeper, but never got one. *sigh* And my favorite commerical of all times is the "Most Wonderful Time of the Yr" commercial by Staples.

    I love the way you see things, and I want my kids to know the same things.

    I have one entering kindergarten this year too, as well as 5th grade.

  • Beth

    I'm with Peter…my oldest starts school in two weeks and the school supplies the supplies. And charge us a nice fee. What a let down! I was so excited about school shopping with her. :( Also like Peter, I was a nerd. I loved going back to school and the shopping that came with it.

    At least last night I got to school shop for 30 needy kids with my women's group. THAT was a blast.

  • ~*Michelle*~

    I love Katdish's reference/visual of "clean slate of a new school year"

    The good intentions of keeping things orderly and organized those first few weeks only to have it found torn at the bottom of the locker is such a great comparison to how I sometimes start my week. Fresh from a great Sunday of praise and worship, I set out to walk like Jesus and when Friday rolls around, I find myself dragging and torn by sin needing direction and forgiveness.

    Thankfully, we serve The Great Teacher who brushes me off, helps get things back in order and wants to share His lesson with me again and again no matter how long it takes for me to "get it".

  • Wendy

    I just took my daughter shopping for school supplies. Her favorite thing? The erasers. Sometimes I wish I had a giant eraser.

  • LauraLee Shaw

    "We have good intentions, don't we? Every notion to make the next day our best, to rise above petty thoughts and empty words and become who we know we can be. And still every night we close our eyes with the nagging thoughts of who we let down and what we couldn't measure up to."

    Um, yes. Didya surf for a bit on my brain wave? So glad the Lord gave us the Body of believers to walk down the road with, each other picking the other up when they fall. I hope that every believer can be as authentic as you've been with this post.

  • jasonS

    I would have been so upset if my school got the supplies for me. I strategically picked out the most distinctive supplies, the ones that were most "me" or whoever I thought "me" was at the time. Loved picking out the trapper keeper too. :)

    I know you had a wonderful broader point, but I'm a bit distracted with all the thoughts of school supplies

  • FaithBarista Bonnie

    "Summer is the Great Eraser"

    Yep. Even now, summer sticks with me as the time to forget about the old and think of something new for the fall. I never have shaken the "school year" calendar of September to June rhythm. So, yeah, I was the school girl. Hubby's word: nerd.

  • KM Wilsher

    What memories, BC.
    Great post!

  • Blessed Mom of 8

    I love being able to go to God and ask for that big eraser and to know I'm washed fully clean!

    I praise God that no matter how much or how often we mess up – He is right there waiting to open His arms to us and all we have to do is look up and reach up!

    Blessings and love,
    Jill

  • Heart2Heart

    Billy,

    You had to go there with the Trapper Keeper huh? I had one, begged and pleaded on my knees to my mom for one. I treasured it, organized it, labeled it, and made sure all the right things went into all the right places.

    I love school shopping, and you're right, it does take a a new feeling but one I remember, one that for so long I want to go back to. The first day of school.

    New clothes purchased from the Sears Home Catalog, that we just couldn't wait to try on, that new Dukes of Hazzard lunch box with the ultra cool thermos with koolaid packed inside, and the Trapper Keeper. Oh how I remember wanted to be the envy of all my friends when I pulled that out!

    Thanks for my trip down memory lane, it was great! Now I am off to purchase day glow post its, and dry erase markers cause life doesn't get any better than this! :)

    O.K. Well for today, anyway!

    Love and Hugs ~ Kat

  • Joyce

    Hopped over from Reluctant Homefront…

    Loved this! I've just moved to a new house, town, state….there are some similarities to a new school year… a fresh start in lots of ways.

  • Beth E.

    Amen, Billy…I want the same thing for my boys. I pray that they will remember everything their dad and I have attempted to teach them, especially now that they are in college.

    Hope your kids have a great school year.

  • Denise

    I enjoyed this post.

  • Joanne Sher

    YES – we were JUST talking about shopping for school supplies this afternoon. It really is a rite of passage (though I SO wish they'd stop having the sales in July. SSSHHEEEESSHH – we don't start school til after Labor Day here!).
    Just because we cannot fly doesn't mean we shouldn't stand tall.
    Now THAT line is a keeper (not a trapper keeper, but a keeper ;)

    And I have one starting kindergarten, and one going into third grade.

  • Shanda

    Very timely as we just went school shopping today. Our school list is VERY specific so my kids only get to show their own "flare" here and there – mostly with their composition tablets. I always loved the beginning of school. We normally had a couple of new outfits and new shoes that we were only allowed to wear "inside to break them in" before the big day.

    As I read through, this verse came to mind – I guess because His mercies are new every morning and we don't have to wait for a new season to start fresh:

    "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul." (Psalm 143:8)

  • lynnrush

    Nice!!

  • sherri

    This is all so true- and I loved shopping with my boys- they were always so excited! New clothes, new shoes, new supplies, new start.

  • RickNiekLikeBikes

    You forgot the cell phone and the ipod eh?