The Boy

I was driving The Boy to school this morning. Out of the blue he announces to me that he wishes he were a bird so that he could do whatever he wanted.

Well, if you were a bird you could only do what a bird could do, I told him. A bird only does what its designed to do. Kind of like a robot. It does what it has to do in order to survive. If you were a bird you wouldn’t know what you wanted to do as a boy wishing to be a bird.

Of course, as usual, he disagreed with me. With The Boy and his Mother it is always like this. If I say its black he insists that it’s white. That is until he decides on his own this is true. Or he hears it from somewhere else. It can be quite frustrating for me as his Mother.

So, he is disagreeing with me. He tells me if he were a bird, he could fly as high as an airplane and go anywhere he wanted. “I could do whatever I wanted.”

You know, I tell him; I always wanted to be a bird when I was little too. It would be fun to be able to fly. But, think about it. As a bird, you would not have the thought to fly as high as an airplane or go anywhere you wanted. You would be programmed to be a bird. You would eat worms, build nests, take care of your babies, and try and survive the bigger birds out there that would want you as food. You would not go anywhere you wanted because you would not even be aware that you wanted anything other than that which ensured your survival as a bird. You would only do the things that a bird is programmed to do. You would not be able to ride a bike, or climb a mountain. You only think that a bird is free to do what it wants because you can see that it can fly. It’s programmed as a bird like you are programmed to be a boy. You are also like a robot , only you are a little boy robot. And maybe you could wish that as a boy you could fly like a bird. Then you could be a little boy and fly too!

He was silent as we pulled up to the school. I reached over to kiss his check and I told him that I was glad that he was my boy and not a bird, and try not to get in trouble today!

Tonight I will tell him more about birds.