Monday, February 11, 2008

Excerpt from a conversation with C.

C.--she of the previous post--and I talked on the phone last night. We pick up the conversation where I've just informed her that I have sent her a small present:

C.: I love presents!

Me: I know you do.

C: Something I like to do sometimes, when I get really bored, is I'll find something that someone has given me and put it in a box and wrap it up, and then I pretend that someone has just given it to me.

Me (intrigued): I didn't know you did that.

C.: Yeah . . . and sometimes I'll find something of Mommy's and do the same thing--it's like more of a real gift that way.

Me: Well! That sounds like a lot of fun.

C.: It is . . . but I have to be really, really bored.

I have thought about this all day long.

It feels like it means something.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've not been roaming the blogosphere so much of late, and this post reminds me that I need to - and I need to come back here when I'm not exhausted, and have had a few glasses of wine contributing to an already foggy mind!

John B. said...

Sorry for being late in responding, Pam. All I'll say is that I've been pondering this when clear-headed as well as when sleepy, and it still seems quite gnomish. But maybe that's precisely part of its appeal: as with the mulling-over of a koan, part of its point is precisely the mulling-over.

Anyway, I think I now have a sense of what it means for me, but it sounds so Chicken-Soup-for-the-Soul-like that, given the fuss I've made, I hesitate in saying anything more about it than that . . . though, I'll also say ::Proud Parent Alert:: that it strikes me as being pretty damned insightful for a ten-year-old.

Anonymous said...

...seems like that not only has your daughter developed internal resources enough to cope with all of life's little ante-rooms, she is also clever enough to use her super powers sparingly.

that is pretty impressive for 10.

my eldest is 4 & 1/2 and i swear at times she acts like...she's 4 & 1/2.

; ' )