Ziva Did It!

For the past year our family movie time has been riveted on what was, for us initially, an unlikely target--the highly successful crime show series, NCIS. So far we've watched (in order) every episode of Seasons 1-8. And as family movie watching often does, this activity has produced a new level of comradeship among us. We've experienced every episode together, discussed and played with some aspects, made common memories. To make the endeavor and time even more valuable, the teacher in me assigned an extension activity: Write an essay telling what you learned from the show. Here we list our family's most valuable lessons:

~Ziva did it! This is code for "Dad is funny, albeit repetitious." He blames Ziva for everything around here now!

~"On your six, Boss." There is such a thing as a team, and it requires loyalty and dependability. Don't take a job unless you're committed to supporting your team. Your co-workers are depending on you. Incidentally, your family is a team, and it depends on your support as well.

~Give 'em a Gibbs A head slap on the back of the head for saying/doing something foolish is just affectionate feedback. If the whack was on the front, it would be demoralizing. No whack at all leaves you feeling insecure, unsure of your value and position in the group. (That's NCIS's perspective and we laugh about it, but Bear Bait insists that if his boss ever gave him a Gibbs, that'd be the end of THAT job!)

~The Rules Everyone needs a code they can live by. There are rules. Sometimes they're more like guidelines, but... My house, my rules. Gibbs has about 50. See them here. We each have a favorite. Mine is Rule #51: Sometimes I'm wrong.

~Time Management

"A little less time for the rest of the world / And more for the [four] of us..."

(Okay, that's not from NCIS. I borrowed it from the song Honesty by Rodney Atkins--thank you, Rodney! I borrowed it because my HE, Bear Bait, truly worked hard at and learned the value of giving the world a little less time while we were deep in the throes of watching NCIS. "Projects? Projects--schmojects! We've got a DVD to watch!")

~Chinese Takeout We all love it! The restaurants are trying to get away from packing their entrees in paper cartons nowadays, but it's worth the extra trouble to clarify that desire to the person who takes your order. Besides the extra xenoestrogens we don't need around here, it's just not the same eating Chinese out of plastic.

~Morality vs. Ethics "The ethical man knows that it is wrong to cheat on his wife, whereas the moral man actually would not do it." --explains Dr. Mallard to his assistant ME, Palmer. I appreciate Ducky's analysis. It's good to mark the difference here, so you're not so disappointed if the person you vote into office, go into partnership with, or even just look up to turns out to be more ethical than moral...

~Semper Fi Most of my family members rebelled against the idea of actually WRITING their thoughts, but one actually did turn in an essay, and it's awesome:

I learned what the word "semper fi" means, even though I don't remember now.

I learned that you don't have to tell everybody your business (unless you need to).

I learned you can't love someone too much, because everybody eventually passes on.

I learned that you can't trust someone too much because there's always a chance

they will turn against you. I learned that I am very interested in Forensic Science.

How about you? Any favorite gold nuggets from this show? Or just an opinion? Love it? Hate it? Feel free to leave comments! ;~)

Semper Fi...(Always faithful),

Lattice