Six hours of Godzilla movies, some lime ices, two hours of swimming, a couple of pounds of spaghetti and meatballs, an apple pie and a quart of vanilla ice cream.\u00a0 Apparently, that equals the optimal day when you\u2019re a seven-year-old boy.\u00a0 At least in one case.\u00a0 Now I\u2019m not seven.\u00a0 And when I was seven, I\u2019m guessing I would have preferred six hours of Universal Classic Monster Movies and maybe I\u2019d have gone with blueberry pie in that line up.\u00a0 But I definitely remember most of the vibe in that set of choices.<\/p>\n
And so, I set up the itinerary exactly as specified by my guest.\u00a0 And it was swell.\u00a0 Now don\u2019t get me wrong.\u00a0 I would have preferred six fewer hours of Godzilla and maybe a ribeye steak would have been higher up on my list than spaghetti today for instance but bonding with the grandkids is an item very close to the top item on my list of priorities.\u00a0 And because when you have several grandsons and they all differ in their preferences about everything including activities, foods, desserts and movies it sort of behooves you to divide and conquer.\u00a0 So, I\u2019ve instituted a separate day for each of them to spend the day with me and Camera Girl.\u00a0 And on that day, they get to pick the activities, entertainment, food and desserts.\u00a0 And they even get to decide when it\u2019s over.<\/p>\n
And it works.\u00a0 Without his brothers or parents there, each kid gets to call the shots and be the king.\u00a0 No one tells him to eat his vegetables or finish everything on his plate.\u00a0 No one says six hours of bad movies is too much or says to get out of the pool because we have to pick somebody up from something or other.\u00a0 And he even gets the chance to discuss with a supposed grown man whether Godzilla would beat King Kong or T. Rex or Indominus Rex or the Mosasaurus and why and under what circumstance.\u00a0 And how Godzilla can have radioactive fire but somehow it doesn\u2019t kill King Kong.\u00a0 And he has to do it with a straight face.<\/p>\n
And he can even eat his dinner while watching tv on the couch and not have to do any chores all day and go home as late as he wants.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s also a good deal for me.\u00a0 I can sort of remember caring about, \u201cWho would win?\u201d.\u00a0 Sure, maybe it wasn\u2019t Godzilla.\u00a0 Maybe it was a Roman legion versus Alexander\u2019s Macedonian phalanx.\u00a0 Or Superman versus Thor.\u00a0 Or whatever ridiculous thing I imagined that day.\u00a0 But the point is I sort of recall the feeling.\u00a0 Some very old neurons fire off a few synapses that I haven\u2019t used in sixty years or so and it\u2019s fascinating.\u00a0 I almost remember being that age.\u00a0 I almost remember the feelings.\u00a0 And it\u2019s pretty great.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m working this program youngest to oldest.\u00a0 So, as we move up the line things should get more and more familiar.\u00a0 Or will they?\u00a0 Is nineteen any closer to who I am than seven?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Each page in the book of life is an island.\u00a0 A snapshot.\u00a0 All of them are long ago.\u00a0 But I expect to enjoy each chance to delve into their present and my past at the same time.<\/p>\n
And ultimately, I\u2019m trying to build a little immortality.\u00a0 I still remember the times my grandfather came to visit me as I was growing up.\u00a0 He understood that public relations with your descendants was terribly important.\u00a0 So, he did it right.\u00a0 He brought us out for the biggest, greasiest triple cheeseburgers at Wesson\u2019s and he always had chewing gum when he came over and he always took us for a drive to the most beat up neighborhoods in NYC where he knew the most bizarre characters like a jeweler that he worked for as an armed guard.\u00a0 And he always had stories about his times as a cop or when he was the mayor\u2019s bodyguard or a private detective.\u00a0 Or when he shot it out with armed robbers from the running board of a commandeered taxi.<\/p>\n
And because he spent the time with us, in a sense, he\u2019s still alive even forty some-odd years after his death.\u00a0 And if I tell his stories to my grandkids then maybe he lives another hundred years.\u00a0 So that\u2019s my game.\u00a0 I\u2019m working on my immortality.\u00a0 And I\u2019m paying forward things that were given to me long ago.\u00a0 What\u2019s more valuable than that?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Six hours of Godzilla movies, some lime ices, two hours of swimming, a couple of pounds of spaghetti and meatballs, an apple pie and a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1263,2860],"tags":[83,2093,2341],"class_list":["post-24820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-reclaiming-the-family","tag-family","tag-reclaiming-the-family","tag-traditional-family"],"yoast_head":"\n