the rule of age 10

A current inventory of my ten year old son's brain, as near as I can get:
comics, gross stuff, jokes and riddles, computer code, Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, scientific facts, Mario, Minecraft, Calvin & Hobbes, Christmas lists, piano music, philosophy and snacks

What if what we really loved doing between ages 9-11 is what we ought to be doing, in part at least, for our actual adult jobs?

I am pretty sure I've heard mom recall a time or twelve when my middle grade teachers complained that I COULD NOT WHISPER. And now, when I'm lucky, I get paid to talk. Voiceover is certainly not a career, but it is fun work.

Reader's Digest suggests a person's "inner child," specifically around age ten, may contain his or her source code. This article made me think of Tuck, smack in that developmental sweet spot. Everything that's in him is showing itself all at once. A surge in bandwidth, a reconciliation between what he thinks with how he feels. He is developing tastes and telling blunt truths, solidifying affiliations and questioning policies.

At ten, Tuck is preoccupied with mostly marvelous things, but I'm not real clear about what they say for his professional prospects. I am willing to support who is is and what he loves, whether he follows early enthusiasms or a twisty path.

Tomorrow Tucker will serve as Director of Development for the Greater Columbus Arts Council when his fifth grade class visits Biz Town. Who knows what kind of work he'll be doing ten years from now, but I hope he'll find something intrinsically enjoyable and infinitely meaningful, a job that allows his deep happiness to meet the world's great needs.