Beckett: Not my problem!
Me: When will it be your problem?
Beckett: When I’m a dolt!
Me: Heh??
Beckett: A Dolt! Like You.
Me (miffed): What?
Beckett: A Dolt! Grown up! Like you!
Me: Adult? Ahh..
Beckett: Yes.
Me: (So much life wisdom in this exchange)
I have a sand clock on my table that Finch finds amusing. Turning it over is one of her consistent requests whenever she comes to my den to bug me while I'm working. I always oblige and then both of us, wide-eyed, look at the grains of sand falling down, one by one, gradually forming concentric circles; she marveling at the precision of the patterns being created by these insignificant particles; me philosophizing what their falling signifies.
Today, she tried to grab the sand clock and it fell over. No damage done. But the pedantic father in me wanted to use this as a teaching moment. So I picked up the sand clock and asked her,
'તુટી જાય, બધી રેતી ઢોળાઇ જાય, તો આપણે શું કરવાનું?' (What are we to do if it breaks, and the sand falls all over?). I was hoping she would say I'll be careful or something to that effect.
Instead, the two & half year old critter, just look back at me and said, કાંઈ 'નઈ પપ્પા, It's Okay કહેવાનું!' (Nothing Pappa, we should say It's Okay!).
Naturally, my jaw drop was a sight to behold. Of course my 80s-socialist-India conditioned brain had difficulty fathoming the simplicity of this American-abundance-as-default conditioned response.
Today's kids I Tell You!
