The Conquerer

I just love watching my son enjoy the world. Everything is so exciting and new to him. I took him to my parents’ house this weekend. Just him and me alone. It was great. We had a wonderful time. He met some cows, and a couple of donkeys, and saw a few nice deer. Yeah, the season’s over, so maybe next year....

I introduced him to the absolutely fascinating sport of throwing rocks into water. He did this nonstop for about an hour, and every rock thrown was pure magic for him. He laughed delightedly at each splash, and really got into finding the perfect throwing rock for each throw out of the millions of rocks that were laying around. There’s an art to it, you know. You can’t just throw any rock.

He played for at least an hour in a dried up stock tank. For you Yankees, a stock tank is a man made pond where the critters drink. We’re in severe drought stage in South Texas, the worst since the 1950's, so the almanacs say.

It was a whole world for him, better than any stupid McDonald’s playscape ever thought about being. It was Mount Everest, K-9, El Capitan, and the Alps all rolled into one. Without any prompting from Dad, he searched around and found a suitable stick, which immediately was used to squash bugs with, and also acted as a combination lightsaber, broadsword, and general poking device. He climbed high atop a pile of dirt that served a retaining wall, and waved his mighty sword, daring any and all challengers to bring it on. He was Alexander, Ghengis Khan, and Ceasar all rolled into one.

It’s amazing to me how boys operate. This is a kid that has seen no violent movies in his two years. He doesn’t get to watch much television. Yet a stick is instantly a weapon to him. Tell me that’s not hard wired into males and I’ll call utter bullcrap.

It was one of the most magical days that I’ll ever experience. I thanked God right then for the chance to share this time with him, and for all the wonderful things he’s brought into my life.