My younger son has been picking up sticks since the day he first walked. I’m not sure if the sticks have gotten smaller as he has gotten bigger, but if it can poke an eye out…. It’s in Fritz’s hand.
He’s a freshman in high school and just the other day I had to bark out, “You got to be shitting me Fritz, put the stick down!”
He has turned sticks into lasers, light sabers, guns, magic wands, fishing poles and a sword.
His dog, Molly, loves it when Fritz picks up a stick. Both see a stick as a toy. Something to throw and play tug of war with…
…Dad sees an eyeball bleeding. Holding the eye on a cheek in one hand and the steering wheel in the other hand, while speeding to the emergency room.
All these years I’ve been looking at playing with sticks as negative. It took this dumb old dad a couple trips around the block to realize that my son was using his imagination the whole damn time.
What was I thinking?
I played with sticks during the Nixon administration and probably during the Ford administration too.
I played with a stick when I was five. Threw it up in the air and it landed on the outside of my right hand. It left a scar that looked like the “pi” symbol. I had that scar for another year and it ended up helping me learn the right side and left side.
My right side was the “pi” side and I wrote with my left side. Don’t tell Fritz, but sticks can be useful.
All these years that my middle child has been picking up sticks, he has been using his imagination. While I’ve been yelling at him to put the damn stick down, he has been creating make believe stuff!
I’m the grouchy Ogre that Fritz must conquer with his magical wand that can turn into a light saber sword. I’m the bad guy who robbed the bank that Sheriff Fritz shot in the butt.
I bought Fritz a whittling kit for Christmas last year. He opened the present, looked at it and asked me why I gave him something he couldn’t use.
“Now when you pick up a GD stick, you can whittle it into something useful!”
…And with a laid-back witty Fritz reply, “That’s what my imagination is for Dad!”
Oh…. I can’t wait for Fritz’s son, John, to pick up a stick someday. Fritz isn’t going to find sticks fun in 2041, but Grampa Jumbo sure as hell will!
Sunday Funday looks to be a little overcast. A perfect day to unwind and get focused for the week upon us.
Maybe I should go for a hike in the woods and find a walking stick?
I can use it to pole vault across the DesPlaines river!
