Last night we played a game at the dinner table. One by one each of us added a word to string together a sentence, then two, then a paragraph. (Except for the 2-year-old, who nonetheless demonstrated her near-perfect understanding of the game after one time around the table.)
With few fits and restarts the four of us created a sort of a story. It was silly. About a bubble-blowing monster with blue fur who sleeps on tongues, tends to fart and takes baths in mud puddles. No big surprises, given that silly is our dinnertime default and the fact that the creators of the defining details of the story were 5 and 6 years old.
But what struck me immediately and what I can’t stop thinking about is what a storyteller my nearly-7-year-old son is. He had trouble keeping to the one-word format, jumping in without censorship to finish complete sentences rapidly. He propelled the story forward with such ease. And confidence. And with great humor. He was, as is said, in his element.
And now I want to sit in a room with this boy—just the two of us—and write stories. I want to see where his imagination goes. I want to tell him never, ever to censor himself. To keep shouting out creative ideas. To go with his heart and his gut. To write it all down. To keep it forever, these ideas growing and changing as he grows and changes.
I want to tell him there is richness in open ideas and shared observation. That he will always have something to say. And that I will always be here to listen. To learn from him. To try my best to see things through his eyes and creativity and sensitive, smart ways. That I appreciate—and will remain in awe of—his unique perspective.
And that a story of a muddy, stinky, furry blue monster can be so much more than just a silly game at the dinner table.
In a few days my son—my oldest child—will turn 7, and I’m looking at him (and us) a little more closely than usual. Bear with me while I indulge myself in a few posts this week that focus on the unique significance of this first miracle who made me a mommy.
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Originally posted in April 2011