Thursday, May 13, 2010

H -or- Why I Think My Son May One Day Be President



I have had an epiphany. My son will be president. Yes, I know that's a bold statement to make about a boy who is only four. But isn't that what an epiphany is - a sudden perception of the essential meaning of something through events simple or striking?

John-Heath is having trouble writing his letters. He knows them all. He knows the sounds they all make. Ask him a word and he can give you the sound its first letter makes and tell you the letter. But he is just not good at writing them. There are two reasons for this (well, three, if you count the fact that we don't work with him on it like we should).

1.) He's a lefty. John and I are righties. It is hard to model the correct way to hold a pencil or form letters to a lefty when one is a righty.

2.) He has a tee-tiny attention span for things such as this. You know the line in the Bible that speaks of having faith like the grain of a mustard seed? Well, that's how much of an attention span John-Heath has.

The other night John and I were talking about this. We have told John-Heath that if he does not learn to, at least, write his name correctly then he will have to stay back in Pre-K another year. This causes great consternation for him..."But then I would be with the babies." Of course, he won't really have to stay back in Pre-K but we thought a little fear might make him more motivated to learn. Anyway, John said that we may just have to settle for John (or even J-H) for now and add the -Heath later. I commented that people who name their sons Bo and their daughters Lu are smart. Can you imagine naming a child something like Maximillian Bartholomew? Whew! Kindergarten would be a nightmare.

Ah, yes. Getting back to that epiphany. While reading the card the kids gave me for Mother's Day I noticed that John-Heath had simply signed his name H. I'm pretty sure he did this on his grandmother's card too. And it hit me. H. John H. Creasy. You know, kinda like W.

Now you may be thinking, "John-Heath? President?". But just how many of our presidents were nice, polite little children? Weren't most quite active and inquisitive and just plain handfuls for their mothers, grandmothers, or nannies?

If these truths (and my epiphany) hold up to be self-evident then, who knows, one of these days clerks from a previous administration may be taking the H's off all the computer keyboards in the White House. We'll just have to wait and see.

For his part he has already put in some practice for his future role. During the last presidential campaign he was a keen viewer of the television ads and took them as his opportunity to stand high atop a plastic tub behind the kitchen counter and declare, "I Rock ObaNa and I PROVE this message."


2 comments:

Your Best Friend said...

I found the entire post entertaining, but the final quote was the kicker for me! I love the things kids hear, which are always close but not so close that we don't get the chance to have a good laugh.

Tire Swing Mom said...

I know. I wish I had been writing down all his little sayings. I always think, "Oh, that's cute. I need to go write that down." And, of course, I don't and a few days later I am thinking..."Now what was it that he said."