The Aging of Aquarius

Post-It Note found on our grandson’s bedroom door this morning…

I swear to you, this is a true story. I’m telling it with no embellishment, exactly as it happened not five minutes ago.

You think advertising isn’t effective?

It’s 6:13 on a Saturday morning. I know that precisely because I was starting my coffee maker and it has a clock on it.

Seven-year-old Isaiah appears, rubbing his eyes and telling me he sprained his groin while sleeping.

I don’t know. I didn’t ask.

A moment later he’s in our TV room as usual for a Saturday morning but instead of cartoons I hear something that sounds like an infomercial. I expect that to change to Spongebob Squarepants momentarily but it doesn’t. It’s too loud. I go into the TV room and ask him to turn it down. He does, but he still doesn’t change the channel and he is transfixed on whatever he’s watching.

“Isaiah,” I say, “why are you watching a commercial for a floor sweeper?”

“It’s a very good floor sweeper!” he explains, with a great deal of animation. “It’s very lightweight and with the Haan© steam cleaner you just add water and it does the rest!”

As the dogs are my witness.

© 2010 by David L. Williams, all rights reserved

Life is difficult. It’s complicated. Kids don’t understand that.

Well, why would they? We handle all the complicated stuff for them. They just play. That’s their job and most of them do it exceedingly well. You can even say they’re experts at it. The sad thing is that we were all kids once but for some reason as we get older and the world gets more complex we think we need to find more complex ways of having fun. It usually involves a lot of money and frequently a lot of time and planning.

Now you’re thinking, “Oh, fiddle-faddle! I don’t need a fancy vacation or dinner at an expensive restaurant to have fun.” Maybe not but I’ll bet I can’t get you to giggle your way through an afternoon by playing in a cardboard box.

Forgive me for saying so but I can’t imagine you and your closest friend squealing with delight for hours while running through a sprinkler.

And I’ll bet most of us would consider planting flowers a job rather than a pleasure. Maybe both if gardening is a hobby or one of your particular adult pleasures but it is still definitely a chore.

My grandsons just don’t know how complicated life is.

Please don’t tell them. They’ll figure it out in their own time.

© 2010 by David L. Williams, all rights reserved