Spontaneity

Greetings y'all ;

So the last two days I've been illin' and ailin' . I could've and should've stayed in bed resting. But since we're the Robinson Boys we had a grand adventure on Sunday and a spontaneous day filled with history and memories yesterday. The irony is that on Sunday Zander or DJ -Z as he called himself on the musical ride home yesterday,more on that later though, asked me what our next big adventure was gong to be. My reply was perhaps we ought to visit Sharpsburg and Antietam. Little did I know we would wake up and burn all the petrol we saved the week before to drive through our gorgeous state. Like I said elsewhere- you only get one 150 yr anniversary. I was incredibly proud of my young man. He listened to the rangers and re-enactors, read every sign, absorbed the seriousness of the event, was able to visualize the events, and found little used trails to get a better feel of what the soldiers endured. He randomly the held the door for folks and let folks go first. He helped people with directions, map reading and even sat in Dunker Church and taught a young boy about the events while several people ,including a Park Ranger,listened in.

Basically I need to win the lottery so I either homeschool this amazing young man or send him to a Montessori school that matches who we are. I say that with all due respect to his wonderful instructors he has now. But my son is not built for traditional assembly line education. Once he grasps how to play the game by their rules he'll be fine. But he showed me he can handle himself alone, one to one, and in crowds. Granted we spent extended time exploring woods it just surrounded by the masses. But we also found some good swimming holes for our next visit ( we're Pisces after all). So yes DJ -Z and I walked over 45 miles in the last three days and he's not gonna have that opportunity in school but he renewed my faith in him and realized who he is is a wonderful young man thirsty for knowledge. We literally demonstrated the advantages of taking the path less travelled and avoiding being molded by a cookie cutter. He even saw first hand how insects devour dead rabbits from the inside out. My son will be fine, he'll either grow up to be a global game changer or will be a Park Ranger happily stationed in an isolated outpost. What ever happens he will joyously be himself and comfortable in his own skin.

OK so I know your curiosity is piqued a out this whole DJ-Z thang. On our way home I had the CD player off. Zander sang a delightful medley of tunes and at one point interjected " this is DJ -Z ( FYI your voice must drop an octave on the Z) coming atcha with his version of Maroon 5 ' Misery' " . He kept this up for about an hour and kept referring to himself as DJ-Z. That boy cracks me up.

So I kept my promise this weekend of smiling and laughing more. I re-connected with my progeny and watched him grow. We walked over 45 miles in three days. The latter is important because walking is great therapy for us. We learned out local, state and national history. We learned about ourselves. We will be fine. He also liked hearing humorous tales of his mother and me. He needed to be reminded of her qualities in her that carried over into him as well. History is not just what happened 150 yrs ago but what happened yesterday. It was humbling to hear an eight year old boy say - more people died in Antietam than on 9-11 but Antietam isn't on the news even though it was us killing ourselves. I reminded him of how recent the 9-11 events are and how big the crowd at the Battlefield was.

Yeah , DJ - Z is gonna be just fine.

Thanks for reading folks.