out of the mouths of babes

yesterday, when i told my seven year-old friend that i was just a big kid myself; a twelve year-old trapped inside a forty-two year-old body, he looked at me and said, "that's seriously messed up".  i took this as a quite normal opportunity to teach him about metaphors and to read to him from "mrs. frisby and the rats of nimh".  to which he replied, "it's a british story, you might have trouble with some of the words, i know my teacher did."

whether it was pretending the mustard bottles (with the lids firmly in place) were jet packs under our sleeves--this helped immensely with clearing the table--or the fact that i read not one but three chapters, i don't know, but he looked at me with that perfect childlike translucence and said, "you're cool!".

let us not, dear adults, become overrated as we grow.  kids are where it's at. also this week i received drawings from a friend's daughter of dogs and cats going to the park.  she was quite proud of her authorship.  and, when i discussed blogging with my pre-teen friend, i was so relieved to find out that she no longer considered our "word of the day" tradition too childish.

me:  "so, i really want to ask you what the word of the day is, if that's cool with you and all, i mean..."
her:  "that's totally cool with me, i've been wanting to ask you, too!"
me:  "really?  that's awesome because i thought maybe you might think it was a little kid thing and you've grown up quite a bit."
her:  "luckily we don't outgrow words of the day, so what is it already?!"
me:  "you're my kind of girl!  i was hoping you'd ask!  it's 'surreptitious' "
her:  (looking it up--my kind of girl again!) like syrup?
me:  "no, s-u-r-r...you've got it!"
her:  "super cool!"

needless to say, my faith was restored.  need a little?  take the prescription of hanging out with some young people and you'll quite possibly catch a dose of fresh energy.