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“Children are born with their own optimism. They have a clarity and a simplicity that we can only wish for” - Meshell Ndegeocello
Greeting Laurel Hall Families:
On this Thanksgiving, I give thanks to those who teach me the most – children. One day, I will ask each teacher to tally the number of times they see a child smile, another day the number of times a child effortlessly solves a problem. I am sure on those days we will have collected some very important data.
The older I get, the more I realize how much less adults smile, laugh, or effectively problem-solve compared to a child. The clarity with which children simplify existence is remarkable. Those of us who have passed adolescence travel through life with a slow, but steady disabling of the thought process. By nature, the paradox exists; the further we progress, the more information we absorb, adding to the myriad “stuff” that gets in the way.
My own kids have always reminded me of this. I remember years ago one morning when my then four-year-old son was incessantly nagging me about which cereal box contained the honey nut oats and which contained the regular oats.
I was preoccupied with reading the news, so I pointed to the writing on the box and asked, “What does it say?”
His reply was resounding, “I don’t know. I can’t read.”
Oh yeah.
It’s the commonsense things kids do that keep us in check. Once, while driving around during the holiday rush when he was three, my boy kept hounding me about different buildings and where they came from and how they were made. His persistence was grating. When he asked me how to make cement, I told him it was “a long story.” He then asked if we could read it.
Later, he asked me for the reason we celebrated Christmas. I explained that it was the birthday of Baby Jesus. He asked why we did not bake him a cake. Like a good father, I told him to ask mommy.
That same holiday season I was supposed to have been getting him ready for a Christmas party where we would be joining his sisters, mommy, and eventually Santa Claus. For some inexplicable reason I decided I would hang Christmas lights first. Afterall, there were adult chores to be done. So, I began stringing up Christmas lights instead of getting ready to leave. My son patiently waited thirty minutes, transfixed on my project in the upstairs bedroom.
The last part of the project entailed me leaning outside the upstairs bedroom window and balancing myself awkwardly for the final plug-in. While half inside and half outside, I realized how dangerous and ill-advised all of this was. Without incident though, I popped back into the bedroom to safety. It was then that I decided this was a teachable moment. My son had been watching me and no doubt traumatized by me teetering on the brink of disaster, horrified that daddy would be plummeting to the street below.
I asked, “Son, do you know what you would have done if I got stuck outside or fell out the window?”
“Call 9-1-1,” was his simple and direct reply.
“Great,” I thought, “Could you have done anything else like
run over to the neighbor’s house and tell them?”
"Yeah.”
“Daddy, I need to ask you something really important.”
“Sure,” I said, and I braced myself for something big.
“If you fell out the window, how would I get to the party to see Santa?”
Clarity, obscurity, son, and father – to this day, I think about that moment, my boy, now 28 years old. I have not forgotten the lessons he taught me so many years ago.
Happy Thanksgiving to all. I wish for you that on this holiday you find your blessings, blanketed in the arms of your precious little ones.
Mr. G
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