My son is an old soul. An old stubborn soul. Currently he’s existing in that awkward stage between young boi and young man. Some days he wants us to baby him up while other days he refuses to hug us in public. We are the plague. He reads a lot. So much so there should be libraries bearing his namesake. We’ve found books hidden under rugs, under his pillow, and behind the toilet. He’s stolen books out of his sister’s room. It’s not like we’re rationing them. There’s a library right behind our house. There are shelves and stacks of books all over the house. It’s just that when he reads he cannot do anything else. He is paralyzed. He cannot hear. He cannot move. He takes off his glasses and speed reads his way into another world. I get it. I was the same way. He’s into snarky fiction like those Wimpy Kid books. But he also lovesRoald Dahl and any popular Dystopian series. Lately I’ve wondered if those snarky books are affecting him as he’s been caught lying. I’m not blasting him out here. He and his sister are contributors and readers of this blog. Besides we’ve discussed the consequences of lying. As punishment I told him to write out what happens when you lie. This assignment resulted into two pages of some of the best action fiction I’ve ever read. He does this marvelously. He complains that he doesn’t like to write but manages to summarize his feelings and thoughts with minimal effort and the hand of an old philosopher. I told him he will write a book one day. He said he’s already started but has too much to do! Hmph. Today I told him I wanted him to write something for the blog. He asked if he could do a poem for the day. I said okay. The poem is below. Once again he did it. He composed something so true and beautiful that we’d have to forgive the little fits of crazy he tossed at us this week. He titled it Mistakes and Appreciation. We don’t want a perfect son. We just want a happy one.
Interesting that we keep coming back to this topic of mistakes. My son wrote this on a board at the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival. The prompt was “To be human is to……”
Mistakes and Appreciation by Dahvi
2,4,6,8 Who Do You Appreciate
I appreciate the people who gave me the life I’m livin’
I love and protect the people who called me Wobbabfett (my husband calls him that. very smart move)
even though I made mistakes
I love them but sometimes I have to put on the brakes,
and stop, think and work out the kinks.
The tiny mistakes in life
are like mice
They are never caught
They never die
You only make more
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