I’m taking a couple of weeks off from sitting in my big, manly, comfortable, black leather poppa chair in my living room. I have to do some doctor stuff. This week’s podcast is about how Summertime makes me feel like a kid. But let me tell you about what happened to another kid…my favorite kid…last Summer, when she was three years old.
Her name is Cecilia. She’s the youngest member of our family, and she had to bring our daughter Kris along when she came to visit us last year because the airlines don’t let three year olds fly alone. Cecelia is that kind of three year old. In my book Staying Happy Healthy And Hot, I told you how Cecilia, our daughter Kris, my Lady Wonder Wench and I did what Neil Armstrong’s family wanted all of us to do on the nights of the full moon…go outside in Neil’s honor, and wink at the moon.
But Cecelia is her own little person. She told me last week, “Poppa, I am now FOUR years old. When can I get my ears pierced.” When I referred that question to our daughter Kris, Cecelia said, “I already asked her. Oh well. I guess shit happens poppa.”
Cecilia lives near a small airport, and Kris has taken her to see the small planes take off and land many times, much to Cecilia’s delight. So she was really looking forward to flying in a big plane to see us. And she wasn’t disappointed.
Kris told us that Cecelia had a window seat in the airliner. And when the big engines powered that huge, silver, flying beast down the runway, and up into the clouds, a little three year old voice said, “Oh wow.” There was an even bigger “Oh wow” as the clouds swallowed the earth and everything else outside her window…even those big silver wings. If you’re a member of the Louie-Louie Generation, I know you’ll appreciate that sound…an amazed three year old you love…saying “oh wow.” But then…when that giant 737 broke through the dark grey clouds… and the sun and sparkling blue sky started dancing on top …all she could say was…”Oh. Oh”…then she clapped her hands and laughed…as if she were applauding for a miracle. And in a way…she was.
Don’t you love it when a little kid you love, discovers some new miracle ? Like when she finds her own fingers. I’ve seen that 13 times…including Cecelia. It’s always amazing. It almost makes you remember when you had that experience yourself…all those years ago. Finding your own fingers. Then figuring out that there are other fingers out there…much bigger ones than yours. And it feels nice to curl your fingers around those bigger ones. Then you learn that those big fingers belong to someone who has a soft voice, and does a funny thing with his face…it’s called a smile. You learn trust, because you find out that you can hold on to the fingers on that hand, to help you use your legs to walk…that hand makes you feel so secure. You know you’ve got to let go of that hand and walk by yourself…so you do…you take a few steps…you wobble and you fall down. So you do it again…it seems like forever till you get it right…you let go, you take a few steps…you wobble…but this time you don’t fall down and another hand you can trust catches your hand.
Eventually your hand gets big enough to make a fist, and hold a pencil…then a handle bar…and eventually a steering wheel. You learn what a solid feeling you get when you shake hands with a friend…and the amazing feeling of holding hands with somebody beautiful…warm hands in front of a fireplace on a cold winter night…tingling fingertips in secret places…fingertips to face…finger tips around lips…then sometimes, the feeling of little fingers around your fingertips…and the great circle starts again.
The circle turns from what was, to what is now, and and gives us hints of what may be yet to come. In this week’s podcast you’ll hear how I learned an outstanding lesson about women when I was a young lifeguard at Coney Island in Brooklyn. And there’s a story from the lovin touch Personal Audio CD about another lesson I learned at a beach a number of years later. It’s the simple lesson at the center of my book Staying Happy Healthy And Hot. ( At Amazon )
Little Cecelia seems to understand very well, that you may as well get comfortable being your own person, because everybody else is taken.
aside from children discovering their fingers … I have witnessed a kitten discovering her paws and claws for the very first time and it’s just as precious! It’s the same wonder all over again.