These Three Things

Without intending to, the Missus and I have managed to elongate Christmas this year.  In our house, the festivities began yesterday with Maggie and Cal (accompanied by their parents, of course) seeing what Santa Claus left for them at Nana and Pop Pop's.  We shall not put a wrap on Yuletide revelry until this Sunday, when all of our grandchildren will be together under our roof, where Papa Joe, Nana, and Yours Truly can squeeze a little bit more Christmas spirit out of the three of them.  

Grandchildren are the the greatest development of my life.  Bar none.  While I do not spend nearly as much time with any of them as I would like (damn you both, work and geography!), I love every moment I spend with them.  Each of mine is a walking, talking B-12 shot.  

I have only been on the job as Pop Pop since May, 2017.  In spite of still being under warranty, I can say confidently that I have learned enough from watching my power trio do their stuff to appreciate how selfish it is of us adults to want any child to grow up "quickly".  Why the rush to hurry them into adulthood?  The average life expectancy for people in these United States here in 2019 is 78.87 years. Although I sought refuge in law school in part to mask my arithmetical deficiencies, even my arithmetic is adequate enough to recognize that, on average, we spend significantly more of our life as an adult than we do as a child.  

One of my favorite activities is sitting on the floor of an empty bedroom in our house that Margaret has effectively converted into a playroom for Maggie and Cal, and simply watching them play.  Their imagination is as boundless as their energy and their enthusiasm - all three of which are contagious.  Occasionally, Pop Pop is invited into whatever it is they are doing although, truthfully, more often than not Pop Pop serves as an object on which to climb or a receptacle on which to store animals, crayons, etc. that are not being actively used at present.  Whether participant or prop, there is no place I would rather be.  

Children have much to teach us.  If we choose to pay attention, then we realize that the lessons they impart are imparted to us all day, every day.  Life is a journey, not a destination.  We, the adults, will be better served if we recognize that we should not insist on children speeding through the first portion of theirs in some hackneyed effort to make us feel better (or simply less worse) about where we are on ours.  Doing so is unfair to them and to us.  

-AK