Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Dandelions

The little Hux and I reread the case history for our adopted kids over the weekend. I won’t go into any details, other than to say that overall the history is less sordid than your average Lifetime movie, or any typical CNN-hyped neglectful parent morality tale. But it is a pretty disturbing document nonetheless.

It aligns well with the ideas floated often in this blog, of random objects colliding, thrown off track or into the sun by some large passing object, some previously unknown intruding force. It's cold out there. And dark. But the flip side of that idea speaks of objects falling improbably into stable orbits, forming binaries and triplets, rings and halos and clouds, arcs of bright ice stretching across the sky. It speaks of infinite possibility.

Yesterday I told the girls I’d pay them a penny for each dandelion they picked off our lawn, then watched them run across the grass, plucking at dandelions as if their spinning lives, our spinning world depended upon it. They presented their bowls of dandelions to me carefully, as if they were full of fissionable materials, Faberge eggs, blown glass. I counted out the dandelions, one by one, while they watched rapt (it says much about the state of our lawn that I shelled out over three dollars).

Then I counted my blessings.

Infinite possibility.

10 comments:

Gordo said...

I can't think of a better way to spend $3 or $30.

Eric Shonkwiler said...

A happy ending, right? Or a good middle?

Jo said...

Love that. My grandpa used to pay me with ice-cream to do the same thing...it leaves a beautiful impression. Your family is lucky to have collided, and here you are spinning in perfect harmony :)

Anonymous said...

Clowncar, I loved your metaphor about improbable stable orbits of objects and relating to children who have been cast adrift.
The children who have found stable orbit in your house are surely blessed.

Mona Buonanotte said...

I paid my daughter 5 cents each to kill the mosquitos that were clouding above our heads at soccer last night. Best dollar I ever spent!

You are a wonderful stable planet...enjoy your moons!

Clowncar said...

Nor can I, Gordo. They ranged pretty far afield, into our neighbor's yards, to get 300 dandelions, but it was worth it.

Good for the moment, E. Life's a good deal messier than a story, so there's no beginning, middle or end to any of it. But yeah, right now it's happy.

Jo, nice memory of the G-Pa. Hope I'm creating some memories myself. You never now what'll end up sticking in your brain.

Old one, thanks. I think we are more blessed than they.

Mona, your kid killed 20 mosquitoes? Can we borrow her? Don't know how stable we are - consistency has never been my strong point - but we're doing our best.

Unknown said...

And in your and Hux's care, they have blossomed.

paula said...

This is just a really beautiful post.

Clowncar said...

Nance, we're blossoming as much as they are.

Paula, thank you. Enjoy the Open.

Wanderlust Scarlett said...

That is absolutely wonderful.

You are an inspiration.

Scarlett & Viaggiatore