Well, on Sunday morning, Cody's board was stolen. Right off the beach while we were jumping waves. I'll spare you the indignation and cut right to the awesome parenting:
I took the loss as an opportunity to impress upon Cody that there are two kinds of problems in the world: Problems you can solve, and problems you can't solve. Getting your hand bitten off by a shark is not a solvable problem. You're going to be known as "Lefty" for the rest of your life. Having your surfboard stolen is solvable. Because we can get another surfboard. And the only problems worth really getting upset about are the ones you can't solve.
I imparted this little koan during lunch, after he'd had some time to calm down. Because in the morning he was still pretty teed up. So much so that we had the following exchange, while wading in the ocean just after giving up the search for his beloved turquoise Liquid Shredder:
CJP: I'm so mad I want to say the f-word.
JVL [looks around]: I understand, Buddy. And we're all alone out here in the waves. And mom's not around. So if you need to say the f-word, you can do it. It's okay.
CJP [setting his eyes hard to the horizon]: No. I'm not supposed to say the f-word. So I won't. But I really want to say it.
The search for the new board has already begun. I think we're targeting a quad fish this time around . . .
3 comments:
You and your son is fword ing awesome.
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Wow. I definitely would have said the f-word many dozens of times.
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