Pop Pop Rule Fourteen

Much to the chagrin of the great Mike Menendez (who, among his other natural gifts, wears a hat so well you would think it was his job) - and to him alone - my best-seller Pop Pop Rules (do not quibble with me for if these past four years have taught us anything it is that the truth is whatever a speaker says it is as long as he or she says it over and over and in a very loud voice) contained only thirteen rules.  He, and he alone, pleaded for additional rules to be memorialized in a second edition.  

While I can assure the rest of the book-reading public that a second edition is not forthcoming, Mike's point about the list, while being thorough, nevertheless being incomplete is a fair one.  After giving it some thought, and prowling the internet to see whose much better ideas I could co-opt and thereafter try to pass off as my own, I came across one so perfect as to demand inclusion as Rule Fourteen:

Perhaps though, and I will wait to hear Mike's position on this, Rule Fourteen is really not Rule Fourteen. Perhaps it is, instead, Rule One for parents.  I have borne witness to just how attentive Suzanne and Ryan are to their trio and how attentive Jess and Rob are to their dynamic duo.  It pays off. While the Class of 2020 (Rylan and Shea) have not yet begun bombarding their parents with questions and talking to their moms and dads about absolutely anything, the Class of 2018 (Cal and Abigail) and the Class of 2017 (Maggie) do so regularly.  And because their parents listen to them when they speak, each of them is not only well-adjusted but is an active participant in the world in which they live.  Each has a curiosity fueled and fed by the adults in their life not only listening to what they say but responding to it, and encouraging them to keep talking about absolutely anything. 

Experience has taught me that Rule Fourteen applies not merely to parents. It certainly applies to Pop Pop.  Among my favorite things to do is to talk with my grandchildren.  Some of the most fascinating conversations I have had recently are with them.  It is not simply refreshing to examine the world through a child's eyes, it is extraordinary.  

It bears remembering as well - and maybe, Mike, we can morph this into Rule Fifteen - there is no "small stuff". Not for your children.  Not for your grandchildren.  Not for you.  Life in a non-celluloid environment is not lived in tentpole moments.  It is lived in the space between those moments. It is in those moments that stuff happens. It is not small stuff but, rather, the stuff that makes up our day-to-day.  

There is no stuff that is more important.  

Perhaps Mike Menendez is on to something after all.  The Second Edition is almost beginning to write itself...

-AK