Riddle me this, Batman: When does the ‘jumping circuit? connect in a child’s head? When does the thought, ‘It looks like great fun to jump from atop something down onto something else??
When?
I ask this because last week when I returned home from long, arduous hours at work, I was greeted by two very exited boys. Both Shamus and Sean wanted me to see their new ‘thing.? They each grabbed a hand and tugged me from the door towards their bedroom. As I was led through our home, my penny loafers tracking muddy water across the floor, I wondered what new ‘thing? they had?
Did the neighbors Kathy and Mike bring over more cool stuff for the boys to play with? Did the rock tumbler finally stop tumblin? their first batch of shiny, polished stones? Or, did their mother find one of their old (but now new again) toys , long ago lost in the back of their closet?
What, my inquiring mind wanted to know, was their new ‘thing.?
When we arrived at their door and I looked in, I wasn’t sure why, if their room was such a mess, they wanted to show me it. In the middle of the room, pillows, sheets and blankets were piled up. I was puzzled for only as long as it took Sean to shimmy up the bunk bed ladder and then jump off the top bunk to the floor.
‘Umphf,? Sean said after landing. ‘Just like Luke Skywalker!?
Sean rolled off the landing pad just as his older brother Shamus took the leap off the bed.
‘How do you like our new thing, Dad?? Shamus asked.
‘Great. Where’s your mother??
Jennie was behind me — they had already showed her their new ‘thing.?
‘Shamus wanted to show me,? she explained. ‘When I asked him if it was something I wanted to see, he said, ‘Probably not.? Then jumped.?
We left the boys to their own demise and went to the kitchen. Around the kitchen table we talked the parent talk about the current situation. Both Jen and I discovered the other was a ‘jumper? as kid.
Part monkey, I used to climb a pear tree, go out on a limb and then fall to the garage roof, to jump off and do it again (hey, maybe that’s why I never hit six foot). That was sometime before the third grade.
For the fun of it, Jen and her sister Kris used to jump off the back of a couch their folks had stored in their basement. I believe the sisters jumped and jumped and jumped until Jen twisted something. Dang it. It’s always fun until somebody get’s hurt!
Neither of us can remember the ‘why? behind our adventures in air travel, only that we both experimented with the effects of gravity. And, we survived. We reckoned Shamus and Sean too will survive their free falls from a few feet up in the air — after all, the Force is strong within them there boy-os.
* * *
Holy Mexican Jumping Beans, Batman! Yikes, ain’t it amazing to see how fast both Congress and the President can move when they want? I’m talking about the rings they’re hopping through to get a feeding tube put back into that Florida woman’s mouth.
Sometime this past weekend, in the wee hours of the morning, Congress hammered out a bill ordering Florida doctors to reinstall a life-support system for a woman who’s been in a vegetative state for 15 years. Both houses came together and the President flew back to Washington, DC from his Texas ranch just to sign the bill into law . . .
That they are ‘saving? a life is wonderful. Great. But, I have to ask — if they can move this quick and work together for this one person (who, for all real purposes can’t understand anything), why can’t they get together on say, oh — the deficit, $3.00 a gallon gas, social security reform or anything else the taxpaying, voting and full-capacitied folks care about?
Just a thought. I know, I know. Rush, go take a long walk off a short pier — then jump.
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