Is this Week 19?? It might be Week 19. My kid is at theological debate camp (yes! It’s a thing!), which means he’s in his room more often than he’s been since school ended last month at this time. We’re grateful that the weeklong camp he’s attended each summer of high school found a way to go virtual this year, giving him the opportunity to connect with friends and exercise his mind. Not only did they send a tee shirt and other merch including a mask printed with a galaxy design, he received a care package that was full of (mostly unhealthy) snacks! That’s really bringing the camp experience home.

I have some treats to share with you. This thoughtful article by New Testament professor and parent Esau McCaulley in the New York Times reframed for me the tension I’ve been feeling about this summer and the choices we’re faced with now. “This mixture of safety and peril and difficult decisions about a child’s freedom to play: It is familiar to me. Covid-19 has given all parents a small taste of what it is like to be a Black parent, ” McCaulley tells us. He and his wife have “drifted to a bias toward joy.”

In that spirit, here’s a lively and fun video of the finale from Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” by the San Francisco Symphony:

Today, at long last, is Opening Day for Major League Baseball. I find comfort in that, as does my dad. Baseball is the language of my childhood, and when I first moved from California to New York City in 1991, I was suddenly less homesick when I found a game to watch, even though it wasn’t “my team” playing. I’m not sure I can talk my family into watching a game with me tonight, but I am happy to know that all over the country, people will be celebrating this rite of summer through the magic of television.

We are in the middle of a heat wave here in Brooklyn, and if this were another time, I’d be eager to spend a couple of hours in a chilly movie theater. Instead, The National Film Board of Canada has made 65 Academy Award winning or nominated animated shorts available for our viewing pleasure.

I might make popcorn, but I’m definitely making Jerrelle Guy’s delicious strawberry spoon cake. She’s the author of Black Girl Baking: Wholesome Recipes Inspired by a Soulful Upbringing, and I love every recipe of her’s I’ve tried.

If you, like I, are getting tired of the view from your own window, try looking through these windows. Perspective is everything, lovies. There is so much beauty, even now.

Special thanks to my mother Deborah Baum for introducing me to the William Tell Overture video, the animated shorts link, and the Window Swap project! She has always made life more fun.

Wendy Claire Barrie is the author of Faith at Home: A Handbook for Cautiously Christian Parents.