It's not that my family has no intelligence, because we do! There is brooding intelligence all over the place.
It is not that my family has no happiness, because we do! There is manufactured and food-oriented and relationship happiness all over the place including random and strange whackaroos who are happy for no apparent reason.
It is not that my family has no humility because we do! It doesn't come easy, but life keeps on trying to teach us and we learn bit by bit.
Enter my grandson.
Just today as I was busing him to Middle School he enthusiastically told me how he got Jolly Ranchers yesterday because not only could he type faster than anybody in his computer class, he was faster than his teacher!
"And for that you got Jolly Ranchers? I would have asked for money!"
He laughed.
"How did you like your PE class?" I asked because I knew he was dreading 75 minutes of PE.
"For thirty minutes we sat cross legged on the smelly gym floor listening to our teacher talk about PE. That's not PE! Then we ran. He couldn't think of anything else to do so we ran. I am faster than all of them, including my teacher!"
"I bet you could have thought of lots of things to do besides run", I said.
He laughed.
My grandson really is gifted and talented. His mother is Japanese so I suspect somewhere hidden in her genes is brilliance. Not that my son isn't bright because he really is bright, a global thinker, a man of integrity. And happy.
Yes. 41 years ago I gave birth to a happy baby! All of us stood in awe of his happy personality. He wakes up happy!
He never outgrew that and I am awed at that stamina of happiness.
Of course he is a little worried about his son.
"Seriously, Mom, I worry about him. He is so self-aware of his advanced abilities and he is not humble. He thinks he is the best. I am not sure that is a good thing but I don't quite know what to do about it because he really is the best and even when he isn't, he thinks he is. He always knows what little glitch got in the way of his top achievement and he'll get that fixed. And he fixes it. I worry what affect that will have on him socially and with friends."
My grandson has no trouble making and keeping friends. He is interested in everything, including people that are "less advanced".
Turns out my grandson is a happy person and people love being around happy. He laughs a lot!
Maybe happiness really is genetic.
I know people love to be around my son! Everybody wants him to be part of the ticket.
Well.....maybe his Japanese wife is a little weary of somebody who cannot be knocked down into the mire.
I see it in her face, sometimes.
Surely part of happiness is having some sort of ability to Not Get A Clue!
His wife can surely take a little comfort in knowing my son laughs less than he used to.
But I digress.
utahstorytelling.org
I was just thinking as I was driving home under the desert sky, a few high autumn clouds bespeaking the time of year, birds roosting on lines and roof tops and flitting among the trees, how much I wish I could run faster than the PE teacher.
It is NOT true that our number one wish as we fold into old age is to retain our brains.
Our dream is to run fast without pain.
I limped into my home and sank down at the computer with a diet coke.
Ahh. The rising generation. God bless them.
Blessings to you for visiting,
Riverwatch
