Not
everything on Thinking Enemy is about an Enemy.
Sometimes it is just about Thinking. And today I am thinking on a very
personal level about why we do all this national strategy and homeland security
stuff. It is not to advance national interests, no matter what the professors
and textbooks and politicians say. It is to “Provide for the Common Defense and
Promote the General Welfare” of those we love. I am thinking about that today
because the little bed is going away.
This is the bed that every one year old hates and
every two year old loves, for the same reason – because it is the first foray
out of the crib – out of the security of the pack-n-play, and into the
independence of your own bed with its own little pillow and its own little sheet. In seven and a half years, six of our
grandchildren have made that transition. And now we are done. No more stories in the little bed. No more
nightlights next to the little bed. No more “one more drink of water” in the
little bed. No more little prayers in the little bed.
Everyone
who visits, sleeps in a “big boy” bed now (or a princess bed as the case may
be) – even Daniel, the littlest guy. And so the little bed is going. It is
following out the door that shopping cart thing with the lights and annoying electronic
music that six unsteady little people pushed through the kitchen until they
learned to walk. And that dash board thing with a wheel and horn and blinkers
and a radio button that played “Jimmy Crack Corn,” while little feet danced and
big feet fled the room. Our house will never be the same again.
This is not a tragedy. It is just
another phase of life. Parents hardly notice. They are just happy to be rid of
the clutter. But pushing the bed out the door hits grandparents hard. They know
what parents don’t – that the time between an empty little bed and an empty
bedroom at the end of the hall is the blink of an eye. And then it is gone
forever. Unless the kids bring home their kids, and then – for a brief Indian
Summer – you get another turn at bat.
This time – if you are Thinking –
you try not to blow it. You try to listen to the little voices, and give heed
to the little questions, and take the little egos seriously. Because, as the poet Andrew Marvell said, “At
my back I always hear time’s winged chariot hurrying near.”
But that’s the rub. Even if you are Thinking, time
hurries on. The little voices learn to get their own drink of water. The little
feet make their own way to a big bed. And the little bed heads out the door. It
becomes hard to ignore the fact that you will eventually follow it.
And so – what to do?
Well, first, don’t miss the opportunities that this Indian Summer affords.
And second – for those of us who understand that there ARE Thinking Enemies out
there – Think Harder. That’s a very
little bed in a very big and ugly world. Someone must stand watch if the
occupant is to grow out of it, and into responsibilities of his own.
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