Eyes Wide Open

Matthew Evans is a 12 year-old spelling genius from Albuquerque, N.M. I only know of him because he was eliminated from the Scripps National Spelling Bee in one of the late rounds. To paraphrase ESPN’s Stuart Scott in the post-spell-off interview, “Sparks gets knocked by missing the ‘d’ on the French word, fouchard. When all of this is done and Matthew grows up, he wants to be a Pastor.”

You know something? I saw the video-story they did on this kid. I do believe that boy will be a Pastor some day! Write it down.

The Winner? Thirteen-year-old Evan O’Dorney of Danville, Calif. Oh, but he really doesn’t much care for spelling. “My favorite things to do were math and music, and with the math I really like the way the numbers fit together,” he said. “And with the music I like to let out ideas by composing notes — and the spelling is just a bunch of memorization.” Did I mention he has already completed his first piano concerto? Yep.

Perhaps the most impressive thing I saw in my limited viewing of the Spelling Bee in “Prime Time” was the way in which each family reacted to their son/daughter when they were knocked out of the competition. I thought for sure I’d see over-zealous moms and dads exuding unusual sadness and disappointment. Instead, they were so incredibly supportive and not once communicated verbally or non-verbally anything but great joy for their children.

One thing I did notice was a general lack of physical affection shown by fathers. Where moms gave the long frontal embrace, dads generally gave the cursory side-hug and pat on the back. Where some would simply dismiss this as pre-pubescent kids who are “too cool” to hug dad, I say phooey; they were in the National Spelling Bee! I dare say not one of those finalists even cared about image. I mean, if you make it that far, deep down you gotta know that the time will come when you’ll be the one signing the pay check of the kid who dared to question your cool factor. So, for present and future dads out there, hug your kids like you mean it.

Scripps National Spelling Bee

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