sometimes it's just that easy
At
By the Bayou, John has
a post about explaining unusual things to kids. The context of his post is explaining things to curious kids when a Pride parade happens upon their town and the family is out and about.
John concludes his post with:
The other is one day in Provincetown years ago. It was a typically summer day, Commercial Street packed with people. As will often happen on any summer in Provincetown, a seven foot tall drag queen in Cher getup came whizzing down the street on a skateboard howling, "Do you belie-ee-ee-ee-ee-eeve in love? I really don't think you're strong enough."
Whoosh. She disappeared into the crowd. Behind me I heard a child's voice ask, "Mommy, what was that?"
Dramatic pause. Mommy replied, "Um.. that was um... a clown, honey."
Child: "Oh, cool. Can we get ice cream?"
Sometimes these things just aren't that hard.
He's right.
Not to compare my bestest buds to seven-feet-tall drag queens (because they're not), but it reminds me of a very cute exchange a few years ago. My buddies, I'll just call them Mary and Joan, have a kid who used to play baseball. We were all sitting in the bleachers at a game when the wee brother of a teammate was sitting with Mary (she's a kid magnet, really) and he was prattling on as four year olds do and he stopped all of a sudden and said to her, "Where's your husband?"
I sat there thinking "shit shit shit shit shit" and was very thankful I was only a bystander to the conversation and wasn't actually participating in it, because I wouldn't have known what to say. Mary, wise one that she is, said "I don't have a husband. I have a Joan." Points to Joan. Little boy looks at Joan. Joan casts a wary glance around and waves back. Kid says "Oh. Ok!" and goes about his merry way. A few years later and he still adores Mary, and her Joan.
Yep, sometimes it's just that easy.
[settle down, Joan]
