The Life of the Party

Macy Bryant was three years old when we first brought you her story in March of 2016. Seven years have quickly come and gone; I felt a pull to reach out to her mom recently to see how things were going for the family and Macy. Ronda was quick to let me know that during those 7 years Macy has continued to flourish and the family has continued to evolve.

Macy was born from an uncomplicated pregnancy. Soon after birth she was diagnosed failure to thrive. After several hospital stays and numerous tests, she was diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome at 5 months of age. Angelman Syndrome is caused by a partial deletion or mutation on Chromosome 15. It causes severe developmental delays, debilitating seizures, lack of speech, and motor delays. Ronda recalled, “When she was diagnosed, we were told she would not be able to walk, talk, or learn, and to prepare for her to be a “vegetable.” Our family decided that very day, that the prognosis given wouldn’t work for us and that Macy would be given every opportunity for success.” The family began supporting Angelman Syndrome research through this process, as well. Through fundraising efforts, such as the Macy’s Stroll and Roll, over $45,000 has been raised in honor of Macy for the Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics (FAST). Josh and Ronda have been invited twice over the last few years, to travel with a small group representing FAST, to visit with scientists working on the cure for Angelman Syndrome.

Macy’s diagnosis has lead both of her parents to take new career directives. Josh went to nursing school and became a registered nurse. Ronda, a certified teacher, went into special education in order to help other students and families reach their potential. During the summer of 2019, the family relocated to Northwest Arkansas. Josh is now the Vice President of Business Development for Home Helpers, which provides home care services for seniors and those with complex healthcare needs. Ronda is now with the Siloam Springs School District working in the District Special Education Central Office as a special education designee.

As for Macy, she just celebrated her 10th birthday. She is in her 6th year of competitive gymnastics, competing in the HUGS* special needs division. When she began competing, she was the first HUGS competitor in the state of Arkansas; now Arkansas has seen a growth in HUGS athletes and competitors. Macy has competed in national level competitions for gymnastics, and was even the 2019 AAU Sapphire National Champion! She also, began riding horses at the age of 2. Ronda shared, “She still loves horses, and always seems at peace when in the saddle.” This past year, Macy began competing with the Lincoln Riding Club and does extremely well each competition. She has been very active in Special Olympics from a young age, as well. This past fall, she won 1st place in the Area 3 Bowling competition, sending her to state competition, where she placed 2nd in the state. She is also a member of the inaugural Siloam Springs Special

Olympics Cheer Team. As if she wasn’t busy enough, Macy started taking dance this year, where she has many friends who love to dance with her. Like any typical 10 year old girl, she loves hanging out with her friends. Ronda stated, “Macy is always the life of the party and can put a smile on anyone’s face!”

* HUGS is a division within USA Gymnastics. USA Gymnastics is the national governing body for the sport in the United States. It gets this designation from the U.S. Olympic Committee and the International Gymnastics Federation. HUGS, Hope Unites Gymnastics with Special Athletes, goal is to encompass all special needs competitive programs, which includes: Women’s Artistic, Men’s Artistic, Rhythmic, Trampoline and TeamGym. N

Book Review

LESSONS by Ian McEwan

Terrell Tebbetts has taught English at Lyon College for over 50 years.

English novelist Ian McEwan became widely known in America when the movie based on his novel “Atonement” starring Keira Knightly and James McAvoy won a host of awards. I was reading him before that and have continued reading him afterward. I even reviewed his 2021 novel “Machines Like Me” in these pages two years ago.

McEwan now has a new novel out, one titled “Lessons.” Not being one to repeat himself, McEwan has come up with a whole different kind of story. In “Lessons,” he portrays the life story of an Englishman named Roland Baines. Born in the late 1940s and in his 70s as the novel concludes in 2021, Baines is a Boomer. McEwan makes the story of his life into the story of the Baby Boom generation.

Earlier generations did as my father and grandfather did: they settled on a single career and stayed with it, often spending decades with the same company. Boomers are different: they change careers an average of seven times in their working years.

So McEwan’s Baines never settles on a single career. During the life portrayed in the novel, he works in construction in his youth, travels widely (and cheaply) in his 20s, plays in a band, teaches tennis, and ends up a lounge pianist in one of London’s fine old hotels. In his school days, he played like a piano prodigy, capable of becoming a concert pianist. But Baines never even tries for that. He drifts.

Earlier generations respected the teachings of Christian churches even if they were not members, giving churches considerable influence over personal and public life, as when they played roles in ending slavery and fighting racism. Boomers and their children have detached from religion, with both belief in God and church membership falling, with the influence of churches sometimes being challenged in court. Baines is such a Boomer. He claims no religion and, from time to time, inveighs against churches, their leaders, and their influence.

Earlier generations married young and started families; that pattern, in fact, produced the children who became the Boomer generation.

Boomers, on the other hand, invented the “new morality” in which cohabitation without marriage became common. Baines starts having sex at 14 and has many lovers in arrangements he calls “serial monogamy.”

Baines finally marries in his late 30s, and he and his wife Alissa have a son when he’s 38. But his wife abandons husband and son, leaving Baines to rear little Lawrence on his own. He rises to the task rather than handing Lawrence over for adoption, and, as he returns to his pattern of “serial monogamy,” his son becomes the only steady and continuing relationship in his entire life beyond his sometime lover and all-time friend Daphne, whom he finally marries in his 60s but loses to cancer just months later.

Baines’ and Alissa’s parents provide a foil to two elements of Baines’ Boomer lifestyle. Both sets of parents have marriages that last through decades and end only on death. And both fathers pursue lifelong careers. McEwan challenges readers to consider if these parents’ lives provide more personal fulfillment and contribute more to their communities than Baines’ life does.

Runaway wife Alissa provides a foil to another element of Baines’ Boomer lifestyle. She leaves him to return to Germany, where her English mother and German father raised her. She does so to concentrate on writing. She had written two unpublished novels and decided she had to be free of all relationships and work single-mindedly on writing if she was going to grow as a novelist.

Though she does not seek a divorce, Alissa never establishes another relationship, living an almost hermit-like existence through the ensuing decades. She alienates herself from her parents, publishing a memoir blaming them for giving her a miserable childhood. She turns away her son when he seeks her out as a young adult. She has only her housekeeper, her cigarettes, and her booze as constant companions.

But she does grow as a novelist, becoming renowned in Germany and throughout the world as Germany’s greatest novelist, always rumored to be in line for the next Nobel Prize in Literature. Baines himself admires her work.

As with the two sets of parents, McEwan leads readers to consider Alissa’s single-minded achievement in comparison to Baines’ directionless drift through life: which has more personal fulfillment? Which contributes best to the world they live in? Baines’ only achievement is rearing Lawrence into a fine young man, who is a researcher, a husband, and a father at the end of the novel. Which is of greater value—Lawrence and his life or Alissa’s great novels?

Readers who love life sagas and enjoy weighing such questions will enjoy “Lessons,” perhaps finding a number of lessons in these characters’ lives.