All Tied Up

It shouldn't have surprised me, really. After all, this was the child that, at age two, had duct-taped his babysitter while I was off at the hospital giving birth to Young Lady (sorry about that, Auntie!). The one who, as a preschooler, managed to pull a garden hose up into a neighbor's tree, enjoying the unique vantage point for shooting others with water. The one who, just last week, chipped a tooth for (sigh) the fourth time. [Official cause: a fake fight that didn't go exactly as planned for either participant. Why oh why did I think it was a good idea to take him to the free "stage combat" workshop last weekend??? Other tooth-chipping causes include careening into a doorframe face-first, slipping on playground equipment in the middle of winter, and 'colliding' with his sister's head - don't ask LOL.]

No, this shouldn't have surprised me. And it made sense, too. If waiting for the bus is...tedious...why not grab hold of the stop sign pole and spin around? And if centrifugal force works well by hand, why not try strapping oneself to the pole with backpack straps, and swing even faster?

All was well, the bliss of dizziness in full force, when The Bus started approaching up the street. Young Man dutifully stopped his orbit, but as he began to try to extricate himself from the contraption, realized that he had tied the knots a bit, uh, *too* well. The bus kept coming, and Young Man was still firmly affixed to the stop sign. Chagrin turned to frustration turned to urgency, and at the last moment, Young Man realized he could slip his body away from the backpack itself. Just as the bus pulled to the corner, the final knots on the harness came loose and the backpack was freed from the pole. Young Man casually climbed onto the bus, backpack draped across one shoulder, as if nothing had been amiss.

And me? I laughed...and laughed...and laughed. (Don't worry, I am a *very* caring parent. Honest.) I could just imagine the phone call. "Sorry, Young Man can't come to school today, he's tied to a stop sign." (To reiterate, I am a very caring parent, and would eventually have gone home to retrieve a pair of scissors if need be. Really.)

And then I thought about it. Isn't that what we grownups do all the time -- get so caught up in the pleasure and distractions of the immediate moment that we nearly miss the Main Event? All tied up, and by our very own hands.

Ah, but it is good to have a good laugh, especially when no blood is involved...nor any teeth.

So here's to the adventure of the moment, and likewise being ready When It Matters Most.
~Lisa