“Have you ever heard of the dia­logues of Plato? Well, I’m work­ing on the dialogues of Robin.”

With these unusual words, Robin Phillips introduces his ambitions. He wants to become a philosopher and a composer. At 18, he’s writing about why he embraces Christianity, and about good and evil, among other things. It might be fair to say that Robin’s not your typical guy on the street. But then, how many people are?

Robin describes himself as a “people person”. He’s always searching for a kin­dred spirit. “I think that each person has a little bit of kindred spirit in them... something that I can relate to. But then, on another level, a true kindred spirit would be different for every­one. For me, that would be someone who really com­municated their inner feel­ings and thoughts and did­n’t hold anything back.”

Robin has had an inter­esting time as he’s grown up. For instance, he has the distinction of having gone boating with the translator of the Living Bible. (He admits that he got seasick, too.) He has traveled to Germany twice along with his family to see family friends, and he’s traveled North America as well. As the son of Michael Phillips, prolific author, and Judy Phillips, Michael’s wife and secretary, how could Robin’s life be less than different?

Robin describes their home-school as mostly a humanities school. Under their mom and dad’s tutelage, the three brothers have studied and read many things, including some of their dad’s books. Robin himself has been a student there for 13 years. Home schooling has given them the flexibility to schedule family life around Michael Phillips’s speaking engagements and his writing. Robin also appreciates the fact that his home, is very convenient for them: they can walk to work in the Northern Coastal California sometimes-sun-and-sometimes-not. When they’re not work­ing, they’re usually at home keeping each other company. “It’s really nice having brothers, because they’re always there. Since I don’t know very many people my own age, it’s really great to have them.”

Robin has been playing the piano since he was a small child. Although his goal is to express himself through com­posing, he performs quite well. When the 1993 Young Artists Auditions were held by the local branch of the Music Teachers’ Association, he performed the Grande Valse in E fiat Major, opus 18, by does he plan to do with his life? He doesn’t know exactly yet. He concedes that you can’t just be a philoso­pher: you have to make a living some­how. But for right now, he’s fairly absorbed in thinking, writing, asking questions. It isn’t important whether those questions have answers, Robin says. The challenge is in asking them, and thinking about them.

Robin says that he thinks best while writing. His current big projects are two in number. For one, he’s writing down his personal philosophy. In this work, he reasons through how he knows that God exists, then how he knows that that God is good, and personal. He’s been raised as a Christian, and never really doubted Chopin (his favorite composer), and Clair de Lune by Debussy. To his sur­prise, he was awarded first prize, which included a scholarship to the Sequoia Music Camp.

The time at the music camp was a real eye-opener. He felt out of his depth because of the talent of the other musi­cians, but he was amazed at their bad lan­guage and their shallowness. “I felt really out of place, like I didn’t fit in. The other kids used so much bad language... I guess I really realized how different I am. It surprises me that anybody could live in this world and not think about what’s around them. But I guess people are different.” The time spent there really made Robin appreciate what his parents did for him by schooling him at home.

Both his father and C. S. Lewis have had a lot of influence on Robin. He says he’d probably still be a philosopher and a writer if he were some­body else’s son, but that being around his father and his father’s writing has passed down the writ­ing talent to him. What dad doesn’t “go to work” and “come home” in the usual sense. Instead, when he has to go on a business trip, they can pack up school and go along; or if he wants to go for a run in the middle of the day, they can join him.

One day a week, each one of the Phillips brothers takes a turn working at the bookstore which the family owns. The location, just four blocks from their that faith, because he felt in his heart that it was true. Yet after reading Does Christianity Make Sense?, by his dad, and Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis, he began to question how Christianity could be proved. These thoughts grew into the written philosophy about the meaning of life, the universe, reason, and God, which Robin may someday make into a book.

His second major writing project is more recent. These are his Dialogues of Robin. He begins with the fact that Plato’s school of philosophy was destroyed “under the cruel tyranny of the

emperor Justinian in 529 A.D.” But he adds a fictional continuation to the story. “The philosophers and lovers of wisdom” formed a small civilization in a remote valley. In true California style, he relates that an earthquake unearthed the seclud­ed academy of Plato, and thus the descendants of the ancient Greeks have begun to dialogue about questions of the Modern Age. His first dialogue is about what makes some people good and oth­ers bad, but future topics include the source of evil, the purpose of hell, poly­theism and monothe­ism, how we can rea­son out that there is a God, and Christianity and politics, among others. But even with all these serious thoughts running around in his head, Robin still has the nor­mal need for physical exercise and for an occa­sional break from think­ing about his work. Every afternoon, he goes (sometimes jogs) to his dad’s writing office, which is a couple of miles from the family home, to work for a while in the fresh air, doing whatever odd jobs need to be done for the upkeep of the grounds. Along with the mundane raking of red­wood needles, the Phillips have two moss gardens to take care of there. And, for a break in the normal routine, the family enjoys heading out to their cabin, 40 miles away in the country. Then Robin can stop thinking about who he is, why he’s here, and what he’s going to do. He can just enjoy the present for the sake of the present.

In the future, Robin may study music or philos­ophy at a univer­sity, but he’s already found his roots and his dreams. With the solid back­ground he has gained through his family, Robin has the basis for his future, wherever it leads.

NAME: Robin Mark Phillips

B-DAY: June 24, 1975

FAV. BIBLE VERSE: I Peter 3:15-16

FAV. BOOK: Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis

LAST BOOK READ: Wuthering Heights, by Charlotte Bronte

FAMiLY: Parents, Michael and Judy; broth­ers, Patrick (twin, 18), Gregory, 16.

FAVORITE THINGS: Writing, imagining, spending time at our cabin, thinking, play­ing and composing at the piano, and asking questions

Robin’s dad, Michael Phillips, has produced more than 60 books, 15 of which have been nominated for Gold Medallion awards. 12 others have appeared on bestseller lists, and nearly all have appeared as book club selec­tions and been translated into several foreign languages. Robin was kind enough to send us a copy of his dad’s latest best seller Grayfox.  He thinks the story, which deals with father/son relationships, would be particularly helpful to home schoolers. We asked Ben Golden, a member of our Contributing Team; to read it and give us his opinion.

If you’ve read The Journals of Corrie Belle Hollister: #7 Sea to Shining Sea you’ve met her brother, Zack. In Grayfox, he tells what really hap­pened while he was away. His adventure began when stories about the Pony Express hit the California newspapers. Zack jumped at the chance to finally get away from home, and make good money in the doing. He thought everything would be different that he d be happy to be free taking care of no one but himself—and the further from his Pa the better. Everything changes when Zack breaks his leg while fleeing a band of Palute Indians. He is found by Hawk, a wise hermit of uncertain years, who lives out on the deserts Zack learns much from Hawk and over time his entire outlook on life is transformed Everything that happens to him during those months, from outwitting a bounty hunter to learn­ing desert survival brings him face to face with the realization that he will never be a man until he can confront his shortcomings his father and his past

I ye never enjoyed Westerns much but this story is about more than just cowboys and cacti The dialogue was realistic and not weighed down with western slang The descriptions are so vivid that after a few pages the setting becomes more real than your own surroundings. This book is illuminating a timely work that deals with timeless principles It explores each person s unique search for identity and contains a wealth of object lessons which make the book come alive Perhaps the story is so realistic because it is a detail of the much larger picture that you and I are living in right now: the path to maturity. Read this book, and then tell a friend or two about it. It is not a novel that you will quickly forget/

BEN GOLDEN is 14 years old lives in Pennsylvania and is finishing his 8th year in home education. The oldest of five children, he divides his time between school, computer programming delivering a newspaper route and editing the local homeschool newsletter