Jack

"Ask Questions, Take Chances, Make Mistakes, Get Messy!"

-Ms. Frizzle-

This is one of my favorite quotes and one that I try to live by. It is also an attitude that we try to transmit to our children. There is so much, I think, that life has to offer- so many amazing places and things and ideas to explore- so much to learn and to experience, and so little time to do it all in. So as far as I'm concerned, Ms. Frizzle was right.

Of all our children, there is one who seems to have really taken this message to heart.

This guy is one of the coolest five year olds that you will ever meet. Seriously. Whether it is running into a freezing lake while letting out a battle cry, or confidently leading a group of kids through the forest in search of adventure, Jackson is one who is no stranger to discovery. And normally, this is extremely rewarding to watch. Sometimes however, things don't turn out so well.

Like this.

Yep. That's our garage door. Jackson was curious about how it worked. This is the result.

I was at work when this happened, so during my lunch break I was a little bit alarmed to see that I had missed approximately three dozen phone calls from my dear wife within a thirty minute period. Concerned, I called back only to be greeted by a voice that made be seriously question Rachel's mental stability.

"Hey love, um, yea, so, um, oh, yes, and, well, no, see, ahh, IDontKnow, think, um, crazy, cry, Jack, oh, see, I'llSendYouAPicture. Bye." Click. I hadn't even been able to say hello.

So, there I was, imagining that our house had burned down, or that one of our kids was eaten by a mountain lion or something, when finally Rachel texted me a picture of what you see above.

My response is unexplainable. I was elated! I started laughing in front of my entire office team (I kid you not), and had to show them the picture in order to prove that I wasn't crazy (I don't think it convinced them). Maybe because it was so much less than what I had imagined, or maybe it's because I realized instantly that such a result could never be brought about intentionally by any of our kids, and I was just stunned by the absurd magnitude of what was probably a pretty benign expression of curiosity as seen on the front-end. Either way, I called back and assured Rachel that I would be home shortly to fix things.

In the interim, it appears that Rachel was able to locate Jackson, who had been in his room sobbing. He felt horrible. "I just want to be a worker and help people." he said. "I didn't mean to break it."

How could you get mad at that? When I got home I loudly announced that I could fix the garage, but that I would need someone to help me who was a really good worker. Jack and I spent the next 45 minutes together trying to figure out how to disconnect the door from the mechanical slidy thingy without wonking ourselves on the coiled spring doohickey. It was quality time. Jack actually had a lot of insights and was able to see things that I didn't. It was fun.

As for the garage, it will be expensive to fix- but not so expensive that it will seriously disrupt our lives. On the other hand, I hope that Jack learned some important lessons. I hope he learned that some questions must be approached more carefully than others, that some mistakes are bigger than others, and that some messes are harder to clean up than others. At the same time, I hope that he came away with a clear understanding that we are not upset at all with him for wondering about things; to the contrary, that we are actually quite impressed that he even had the wherewithal to be seriously considering the mechanics of a garage door opener. Seriously, while talking with him I was actually pretty amazed that he was able to clearly articulate what he thought had happened, and then test it with me by reproducing the experiment (except for the part where it breaks) on the garage door on my shop. I'll tell you what, there is more that goes on in a five-year-old's head than I sometimes give credit for.

If he keeps this up, then Jack is going to make a great worker one day, and whatever he ends up doing, I'm sure he will help a lot of people.

I love this guy. This is a roller coaster that him and I made with K'Nex blocks. It has a motor and everything. Jack directed the entire construction and it took about 3 days, but it turned out great.