5.23.2019

just right

Ten years ago, Tucker was so small and dream-soaked.
He's much bigger now, but still very dream-soaked. He was lucky to have, at school this year, so many solid caretakers of his aspirations and curiosities.

I notice it happening even more these days -suddenly, at the end of grade four, my son knows way more than I do about something he's discovered all on his own, something real and important and not just comic strips or Mario Kart.

You know, strawberries aren’t actually berries. But bananas are classified as true berries. Scientifically speaking, eggplants and oranges are berries too.

I have learned to stop being surprised. To just be amazed.

Pluto was disqualified as a planet before it ever even made it around the sun.

And I am learning to wonder aloud, What else do you know that I haven't asked?

Well, during the Civil War they used to make coffee out of acorns. You know about necessity and invention. The availability of coffee beans dwindled and the Confederates had to be creative. They tried brewing all sorts of things, asparagus and dandelions and potato peels. They were desperate. And anyway, nobody can soldier without coffee.

Tuck seems to be occupying a notoriously wobbly zone between adolescence and adulthood. Last night we let him have a bit of iced coffee here at home before heading to a late ball game. He rested in the hammock reading library books he'd checked out on his own after school, and then ran bases and cheered for teammates until after 10pm.
He is equal parts initiative and inertia.
He is baby bear in the Goldilocks version of growing boys - just right.

4 comments:

Poppy John said...

Hey Tucker,
You look really cool in that uniform!
Here's one you may not know...
George Steinbrenner (the owner of the "real" N. Y. Yankees) and Grandma Rosie's brother John were roommates at Culver Military Academy and stayed friends for decades.

L2A

P.S. How does a Yankee know so much about Confederate coffee???

Andy and Jenni said...

Dad, we did not know this story! Tucker thinks that info is pretty cool. His Culver story is more Frog Princess... he was the ring bearer in a wedding there, and caught a toad, which he delivered directly to the bride on the dance floor!

Poppy John said...

Cool...please verify with Rosie.
Before you were born, John called GS and had me talk to him, I was not sure the guy on the phone was telling the truth, so, I asked him ( GS ) who he had playing 2nd base for the Yanks...he knew.

I believed it to be true. Maybe we could Google GS and see where he did High School. (?)

Poppy John said...

Just checked...GS went to Culver. Owner/ principal manage of Yanks until 2010.
Tell Tucker, I believe that the info I stated is true.

L2A