Sometimes certain things happen that have a weird sense of concentrated reality, things that you know you are going to remember for the rest of your life. Simple things, almost trivial but extremely poignant.
My 3 year old boy, James, is a very peculiar kid. You look in his eyes and you see that he is up to something. You can tell that he is “switched on”.
Yesterday he and his older brother Andrew each grabbed a small bag of chips. James was manipulating the small bag of chips and was crushing it then smashing it and then slamming it down. All the while me and his mother were being typical parents and saying to him that he shouldn’t do that because the chips inside will crumble and will no longer be edible.
To no avail.
In the meantime, Andrew was peacefully holding his bag of chips and watching TV absent mindedly. He was unaware of the commotion his younger brother was causing.
Stealthily, James switches the bags. He took the intact bag of chips from his brother and gave him the tattered one. All the while Andrew was watching TV.
None of us noticed the switch until James yelled:” This one is not good” pointing to the bag with his brother’s hand, and adding:” This one is good” pointing to the one he is holding.
And then he burst out laughing, recognizing that he just created a funny situation. He laughed so hard that tears started coming down from his eyes. Within a second we were all laughing like hell. And we kept on laughing for a good while.
Hours later, after the kids have long been asleep, I kept on remembering this incident and I would laugh all over again. A strange sense of well being overwhelmed me and I was in such a joyful mood appreciating this moment and knowing that I would savor it forever.
