Lessons of War
"You be Yoda and I'll be Captain Hook," says Doug brandishing
a sword fashioned from Tinkertoys.
"Kick your pirate butt I can," I reply in my best ancient and slightly
squeaky voice.
A wave of my hand dispatches the sword into pieces on the floor. This
Jedi training is coming in handy. Focusing the Force (via my left hand)
the thirty-five pound pirate floats harmlessly two feet off the floor.
If giggling is an effective defensive strategy, he has me on the ropes
at this point.
And so it goes on a typical day with my sons. It was just the previous
evening that two young T-Rexes were rearranging every portable object
in the living room to build a barricade which would protect them from
the monster, me. They became so completely engrossed in the project
they didn't notice that they had sealed themselves in a small corner of
the room. It was a bit like the prison inmates declaring themselves
safe from society, but it kept them occupied for an hour. It also turns
out that dinosaurs aren't talented engineers. The barricade kept
collapsing inward on them. But it did have a secret entrance, and that
made it kind of cool.
I'm frequently ambushed by lions and Siberian tigers. Fortunately they
are no match for my carnosaur. Chameleons are always crawling along the
backs of our couches. Cheetahs and zebras are more commonplace than you
might expect in our neighborhood. Perigrine falcons and bald eagles
will soar to the dinner table. Some days it's really hard to keep up.
Recently, Tyler has been telling us about Navuls. They are fascinating
creatures ranging in size from penguin navuls which are about his size,
to space navuls who are so strong they can pick up an entire planet. I
do wonder sometimes what they stand on when they do that, but I suppose
I shouldn't nitpick.
Characters, animals, vehicles, both real and make-believe. Prehistoric
reptiles up against F-14 Tomcats (and I haven't even done the Godzilla
movies with them yet). Disney characters take on Star Wars. The jungle
meets the Martian tundra. No boundaries. No limits. Sure, it's mostly
about battles, and I know it's kind of stereotyping, but they are boys.
Still, I love the creativity. The almost random associations. Fashoning
the world to the whims of their minds. And the rationalizations which
hold this fabricated reality together. I want to keep up, but mostly
I'm a pale wannabe, content to bob in the wake of their fertile
imaginations. I suspect my mind worked once as theirs does now, but in
honesty I don't recall.
Reality has apparently hardened the borders of my mind over time. My
thinking becomes more rigid. My creativity more bounded. But it's why I
cherish being allowed to be a part of their play, and why I marvel at
it's growing complexity and novelty as they grow. It opens my mind, and
lets me glimpse possibilities I might not otherwise have conceived.
While having kids has probably aged my body by 5 years. It has made my
mind 10 years younger, with occasional refreshing bouts of a 35 year
regression into a second childhood.
Now where did I leave my light saber?
