Judd the Red Chicken made the unfortunate decision to befriend bate. He was hoping to nonchalantly drop the fellow in the park before we arrived at the pond, but his plan didn't work.
We have been enjoying the land of the cousins. On Friday when we arrived we went to a regional burger place and then to a high school football game. I haven't been to a high school football game since I was in high school. It was actually quite charming and with the proper ironic distance I can say that it's almost a perk to suburbia. The cousin who is the exact age as The Boy is very into sports and followed every play. My son was clueless, but sat good-naturedly next to his cousin and smiled encouragingly when his cousin got excited.
Remember Arrested Development? There was a great episode where every time Jason Bateman threw his keys at Michael Cera he would hunker down rather than try to catch them. That is my son (this summer when we were staying at the Stanley Hotel the manager was throwing cool ghosty frisbees to people on the lawn as we were passing to go out to the pool. Everybody else despately wanted one; the manager pointed at my son and gently lobbed a coveted frisbee at him... Judd the Red Chicken about went fetal and said all pissy, "Why me?" Then it thunked him on the head and he scrambled after it as it rolled away). A juxtaposition -- his cousin is not just interested in sports, but is naturally very athletic. When he was like four he could throw a ball super high into the air and catch it -- repeatedly.
Saturday morning we all walked over to a little pond in the park behind the cousins' house with poles and a container of Walmart worms and a tackle box. I wondered if this would be an activity that was perfect for all the kids, but specifically a nice common ground for a small naturalist and a mini sportsman. And then The Boy tried to pardon the worm and his cousin looked at him like he was nuts and ripped it in half and put it on the hook. I kept looking at my kids to see how they were going to handle the slaying of the invertebrates, They gave me looks that said, "I don't like it, but I guess it's one of those things..."
I stood under a willow tree as the rain started to pour down and marveled that this whole fishing thing actually worked. All of the kids caught at least two. They are impatient and spastic and noisy six, seven and nine-year olds, and were probably not doing a single thing right...and yet, to my utter amazement they kept pulling up fish. My brother-in-law was awesome with them. He confided in us that he hates the fishing gig, but the kids would never know. He was patient and cheerful as he tied and clipped and untangled. It will be a memory that my kids have with him.
Later when my kids were alone with us they said that they had mixed feelings about the fishing, but they loved being with the cousins. At the risk of being cheesy, I wonder if that's what the difference is between friends and "family." Friendship is usually contingent upon shared interests, similar personalities, commonalities... and we kind of know that as soon as those things dry up, the friendship often dwindles. Family is often about being cool to your cousin even when he's a weirdo trying to free a worm, and it's about being cool to your cousin even when he's ripping said worm in half. It's about throwing the line in over and over again and marveling at how often you pull something out.
And there was very sweet common ground. The kids were all as intent upon setting the fish free as they were about catching them. There was great excitement when one was pulled up and equally great excitement when it was thrown back in.
It's beautifully Fall here. The cute tree-lined streets are brilliant and there's a nice mist (when it hasn't actually been raining). We went to a pumpkin patch and the kids rode a camel named Hoober. And in the enormous suburban basement the cousins have been creating spook alleys and/or museums and/or concerts that they have been charging the adults to come down and see. Curriculum: capitalism.
