Jonathan

I do not have any kids (at least that I know about!). I am at the age where those possibilities have been foreclosed upon. I do not want to become another Pablo Picasso, who kept on making babies even at an advanced age. You should have your children when you are in your twenties and thirties, while you still have the energy to keep up with them. Then when you turn fifty you can admire the kind of work you accomplished by being a good parent. You will no longer see your children as children, but rather as the next generation of adults. If you did a good job, they will take over the reigns and make wise decisions as to how we marshall the diminishing resources of a cold planet in deep space.
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If you did not do so well as a parent, your kids will probably also turn out to be good adults, eventually. Live and learn.
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Two weeks ago a group of us climbed Beacon Rock, which is in the Washington side of the Gorge. My friend from work, Hank, took his two sons, Dom, who is fourteen, and Jonathan, who is six. Hank is a very good father to these two, very polite boys. I wanted to give Hank a present, which is to be able to take him to these wonderful places that are nearby. Soon Hank, who is in terrific shape, will be able to do this sort of thing with his sons, without me. That was my gift to Hank. I had wanted to create another dimension in the relationship he is having with his offspring. I had also wanted to take a peek underneath all this politeness.
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After climbing Beacon Rock (Hank and the boys whizzed up there, and came down while us old timers were still slowly making our way to the top), I offered to buy everyone Ice Cream at the East Wind Drive In , which is in Cascade Locks, Oregon. It was my way of saying thanks to everyone that had been patient with me, and who were willing to put up with all my nonsense.
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After the Ice Cream, we all went over to the Cascade Locks Visitor's Center, in order to use their bathroom and to wash our hands. The Locks are a very restful place. You could just stand there and quietly watch the water, and watch all the boats.
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Inside the visitor's center, they have a small gift shop with the usual trinkets. In the gift shop, Jonathan and I spied this huge table of polished stones. These were all rocks someone had gathered and polished. The sold them for a dollar a piece. They were just rocks, after all.
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Some of them were all blue, or red. Some were all black, or a cloudy kind of yellow.
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I showed Jonathan a bright green one. This one had a jagged yellow line running across it.
Me: "Do you know what this is?"
Jonathan: "No."
Me: "It is a picture of a miniature forest with lightning in the sky."
He got the idea right away!
Then he picked one up.
It was a light blue one with a white triangle on it.
Jonathan: "You know what this one is?"
Me: "No."
Jonathan: "It's a tiny picture of a mountain, and it's snowing!"
I told them that he was absolutely right.
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We continued to play this game for a while. We got to become friends pretty fast because of this.
When we were done with it, I told him something.
The rocks were like people.
Some are going to be boring, like all red and angry, or all blue and sad.
The more interesting ones are going to be the ones with a story to tell. Those are the good ones.
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I had made a new friend in this little boy. He followed me around for the rest of the day and listened to all of my dumb stories. He shared his M&M's with me. He had a million questions about everything. He is a smart little boy.

Mr. Charming