BLAHB
Enzo’s Journey
Through Cyberspace
by anonymous
When I look at a patch of dandelions, I see a bunch of weeds that are going to take over my yard; My kids see flowers for Mom and blowing white fluff you can wish on.
When I look at an old drunk and he smiles at me I see a smelly, dirty person who probably wants money and I look away. My kids see someone smiling at them and they smile back.
When I hear music I love, I know I can't carry a tune and don't have much rhythm so I sit self-consciously and listen. My kids feel the beat and move to it. They sing out the words, if they don't know them, they make up their own.
When I feel wind on my face, I brace myself against it. I feel it messing up my hair and pulling me back when I walk. My kids close their eyes, spread their arms and fly with it, until they fall to the ground laughing.
When I pray, I say thee and thou and grant me this, and give me that. My kids say, "Hi God! Thanks for my toys and my friends. Please keep the bad dreams away tonight. Sorry, I don't want to go to Heaven yet. I would miss my Mommy and Daddy."
When I see a mud puddle, I step around it. I see muddy shoes and dirty carpets. My kids sit in it. They see dams to build, rivers to cross and worms to play with.
I wonder if we are given children to teach or to learn from? No wonder God loves the little children!!!
"Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."
January 6, 2006:
“Papa, I think there’s music playing,” Enzo said as he stood there as a bedside silhouette at 5:55 AM.
Enzo was obviously eager to have me abide by the alarm I had set, as it was the second time this morning that he had urged me to get up, faintly recalling that he had first dropped by at 5:35 to tell me he was getting up to write (in his journal).
Usually, I would have already been up at four, but this week has been an anomaly of late-nights for me, so that with heavy lids I was slow to respond to Enzo’s enthusiasm.
So, dreary-eyed and half unconscious I stammered into the den where Enzo was scratching away in the journal I had given him a few days before.
He had written:
“I was thinking ‘Where did God come from?’”
“Why am I here where I am?”
He explained, “Papa, I’m thinking about philosophy.”
A few minutes later while we sat at the kitchen table he elaborated, “Papa, I don’t think my teacher is interested in philosophy. I only know one person who is interested in philosophy. That’s you Papa.”
He then asked squinty-eyed and with a smile, while I poured myself my first cup, “Papa, can I have some coffee too? “
I chuckled to myself and replied, “No, sorry mijo, coffee is not for kids. It’s not good for you.”
“Anhhhh,” he answered in disappointment.
Admittedly, I felt sorry for him as he looked in dire need of a boost. So, as a consolation, I offered him some OJ, explaining, “Orange juice has sugar, which is a stimulant like caffeine and will give you some energy.”
He immediately replied, “No thanks,” with half a smile.
Making me feel guilty for being a grown-up indulging in his bad habit, I compromised and offered him some of the vanilla mint white tea that I had left over from the night before. He readily accepted the offer after I mentioned that it had minute traces of caffeine.
“Papa, what’s caffeine?”
Being that I could not readily answer him, I said, “I don’t know exactly what it is, I know it is a stimulant and a drug. So, let’s look it up.”
I proceeded to get the John Hopkin’s Medical Encyclopedia and The Essential Dictionary of Science, and read all that I found on the subject.
He subsequently copied some of what I said into his journal including, “More than 6 cups of coffee is not good for you.” I explained what “diuretic” meant and showed him caffeine’s compound name, C8H10N4O2,, and tried to explain this to him by showing him a diagram of Phenol’s molecular structure. We wrote this in his journal as well.
Ironically enough, when Enzo had shared his New Year resolutions with me a few days earlier (i.e. “To get up at 4 AM every morning to exercise my body and brain”) I had immediately thought “Oh, boy, we’re going to have to start this kid on coffee soon to cater and encourage his exuberance.”
Of course, it was a mere thought and not a real resolution. Because, albeit I have read that caffeine in moderation is actually not as bad for children as it has long been presumed to be (National Institutes of Health research indicates there is no difference in the way children and adults handle caffeine. These studies have shown that caffeine-containing foods and beverages do not have an effect on hyperactivity or the attention span of children) I don’t believe that starting them unnecessarily early is a good thing either.
Although, I will add, that I have observed at many a birthday party that many grammar school children are allowed to freely drink soda. Subsequently, it seems to me that simply because soda pop is not coffee, many parents these days apparently overlook the fact that such beverages have the equivalent amount of caffeine as coffee.
Needless to say, Enzo and Nicky are not allowed to drink sodas, and probably won’t be allowed to have their first regular latté until high school.
So, it looks like we’ll be feeding Enzo’s enthusiasm with a placebo of herbal tea for now.
January 1, 2006:
Enzo decided that he would start the New Year right by getting online, both by creating a blog and attaining an e-mail address, so that he could send secret messages to his friends.
He thought of several possible e-mails including: and...
boxhead@beer.can
pothead@beer.bong...
The Old 2002 Blog
ENZO'S E-MAIL
enzo@beer.can
enzo@beer.mug
enzo@beer.stein
enzo@beer.barrel
enzo@beer.keg
enzo@beer.bong