Carolee at three

As summer nears its end I realized that Pat, my wife, and I have not been fishing or swimming once so far this year. As the symbolic end of summer approaches, Labor Day, maybe we can change this sad fact as my wife has some vacation time from work next week and we will spend some time visiting with our grandchildren.

My three grandchildren, Graf kids have also had a busy summer with soccer, football, baseball, 4-H, camps and more. Like other children their age summer is a busy time and goes fast. My oldest grandson, Carson, a freshman to be in high school, has already played in a few junior varsity teams and my other grandson, Dustin, started practicing with his football team weeks ago. My eight year old granddaughter seems to be the only grandchild with some free time to play and imagine.

A few years ago we, grandchildren and I, started a Wiki web page called Graf Kids. At first they were so excited they made many contributions to the web page. Tonight I took a few pictures from this summer I had of each kid and put it on the web page.

I say this about my grandchildren and other children being so busy all the time not to be negative. But it seems that as age and education increase imagination decreases. This is clearly visible with my youngest, 8, and her two brothers, 12 and 14. It is not even a girl/boy thing in my mind. I remember both of my grandsons have tremendous imaginations when they were young. We could make up games and play them over and over again, something now only my youngest seems to appreciate.

When someone jokingly asks me, 69, what I want to be when I grow up, I do not hesitate to say, a three year old. When a three year old tells me she or he is three, I said that I am free. Three year olds do not seem to have the ability to distinguish between three and free. Many of them look at me and say “No you’re not.” They have not been educated to know that a double negative results in a positive, so they agree with me. Jesus said “Unless you are like this child you cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” How do we get educated and keep our imagination? Maybe it is as simple as keeping the imagination of a three year old.

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