My Son: The Genius

When we lived in Dillon, I think Carter was two, we spent a great Easter morning at Mom and Dad's house, (the one they were renting from grandma and grandpa while the house on the hill was being built.) That Easter Sunday the E-bunny gave Carter some sidewalk chalk, and it was one of those great Montana spring days where the sun is shining the temp is hovering a little north of 50, so we decided to try out the chalk on the sidewalk outside. As we were making chalk art people were walking through Dillon in their Sunday best going to their various Easter services and whenever a new group would walk by and say hello to mom and dad, Carter would shout out "I am a genius." I am a genius sounds a lot like "I am Jesus" when it is coming out of the mouth of a two-year-old just learning how to use his voice. Needless to say we got a lot of strange looks, and our enjoyment of the sidewalk chalk had to be cut short after repeated pronunciations by Carter of his genius or holiness depending on your interpretation. My own interpretation has always been that he was telling everyone that he was a genius and like all American parents I have spent the last 5 years since that day trying to find where his genius lies. What exactly is it that makes my son so much better than all these other goofy kids? I relate this story because yesterday I believe I found his genius. On Saturday during Carter's soccer game I saw one of the most impressive examples of performance art ever. Our soccer games are broken up into 4 ten-minute quarters where eight kids generally move around in a gaint mass kicking at a ball until every once in a while the ball breaks loose from the mass and ends up in the back of the net for a goal. That is not what happened yesterday thanks to the genius of my son. First quarter Carter was playing the fullback position and instead of joining the mass or kicking at the ball as it went right by him numerous times he stood there. Not only did he just stand there which really any normal kid could do, but he froze there in a pose 2 fingers up one leg forward for ten straight minutes. It was beautiful. At the end of the first quarter Carter came running over and asked to be the one to sit out the 2nd quarter because he needed to drink some water and rest. I was so moved by his first quarter performance I had to give in to his request even though it was not his turn to substitute out. I mean when you give it your all and put it all out there sometimes you just need a break. Third quarter I put Carter back in the game and was looking forward to more of the freeze pose, but Carter is not your average genius. Yes, he had another artistic surprise for all of us. This quarter Carter spent the entire ten minutes running wind sprints in a perfectly straight line from one goal to the other. A few times he almost was in danger of letting the soccer game interfere with his art as the ball or the mass got in the way of his wind sprints but he was not going to let a little thing like that get in his way and he would pop right out of the mass without ever touching the ball and continue his straight wind sprints. Needless to say the fourth quarter Carter had a new display for us all as he ran in perfect circles around the mass as it moved up and down the soccer field. Like I said, my son is a genius. I spent last night trying to decide what Carter's performance art was all about and have come up with a few things: a call for world peace, healthier school lunches, ending malaria in Africa, but where I think Carter's true artistic (soccer) genius lies is in its ability to make us think that we all could be doing something for any or all these things. Thank you for putting up with this long brog (that is not a misspelling it is a combo word of blog and brag, again it is mine, I call it). I hope, like Carter's art, that it helps you think about what is important in your life. For me it is the fact that, indeed, my son is a genius.