-- Dangerously Ignorant
9:51 AM, Feb 6th 2010
Hey babe428, this reminded me of something I wrote a while back when I was having a bad day and got surprised by two little visitors that somehow managed to turn it into a good one. I hope you don't mind me reposting it here.
I was sitting at my desk, feeling somewhat overwhelmed and quite a bit alone. I’d taken a few days vacation time and somehow over that short period of time a month’s worth of work had found its way to my desk. This seems to always happen when you try to take some time off. The store we’re rebuilding and is scheduled to open in mid-July was having a ton of construction problems that “required” my immediate attention, my cell phone all morning had been “ringing off the hook” (Do you still say this with cell phones?) “God, I’m so glad your back! I have this problem.” Seems to be the proper way to greet me on the phone this day and while I appreciated the God inference, I definitely didn’t need any more dilemma’s today. Yet more problems seemed to be finding their way in to my world this day. And on top of all this, my wife and I have been arguing over something that I still don’t understand. I love her madly, she makes me smile, she completes my life, but sometimes even with the people you love you don’t see eye to eye. Again, feelings of being overwhelmed, frustrated and all alone against the world were starting to set in and grab hold of me.
I heard the outer door to our office open and June our bookkeeper, secretary, phone answerer and the one person who keeps us all in the office organized and on tilt was coming in. Beside her I also heard some tiny giggling in the background and I immediately knew she had brought her two granddaughters with her. “Leave Dangerous alone,” (Sounds much better than, “leave Mr. Ignorant alone!”) I heard her shout above the sound of oncoming running feet and laughter. I then looked up to see these two cute little smiling faces sneakily peeking in at my door. I don’t know why but it always seems when kids visit our office they gravitate to my room. Whether it is our secretary and her two twin boys, Tony, my best friend and co-workers two daughters or June’s granddaughters, my office seems to be the popular spot for kids when they visit here. Ok, maybe the candy bowl that I always have filled for visitors on my desk or the toys I keep on my bookshelf that I’ve collected over the years might have something to do with it, but I prefer to think it’s my Santa like charm that brings them back. With two almost blinding grins they asked if they could come in, much to the protest of June. “Girls, I said leave Danger alone.” She once again shouted. “It’s ok! “ I told June and with a smile that was now impossible to suppress looking at those two darling little faces peering around my door, I invited them in.
It always amazes me the conversations you can have with kids. Their little minds seem to go a mile a minute, what’s this? Why is that? Can I have a piece of candy? Do you have a pet? I’ve got a dog. We’re going to a fireworks show tomorrow. Do you like fireworks? I don’t like the things that go off and make loud noises. How old are you? I’m four. I was hit with a barrage of subjects, my head going back and forth from one little girl to the other. After conversing for a while and laughing a lot, I started to settle back in and began doing a job on my laptop. One of the little girls had gone back over to be with June while the other stayed in my room. She sat intently, the chair way too big for her, swinging her legs back and forth, playing with her fingers and watching me pound away on my keyboard. Suddenly she jumped from her chair and came around my desk, she stood beside me, her little hand on my shoulder and peering at my monitor screen, “Whatcha doin?” she asked. In the best 5 year old speak that I could muster up I tried explaining it to her. “That sounds like too much work,” she said, “Don’t you want to play?” She sweetly asked. “Yep, but what can you do?” I told her, not realizing that a 5 year old doesn’t know about the struggles of working and the demand from bills. With a quizzical look, she patted me on my shoulder, smiled, and went back and sat back down.
On my desk I keep a stack of 5x7 cards. I keep a few of these in my breast pocket so as I make my daily rounds I write reminders on these cards so I won’t forget things. Age has done this to me, increased my ability to forget things. Anyway, she picked up a few and using the markers I had given her began to draw on them. After a while she handed me one that she had drawn on. “Do you know what it is?” she asked. I immediately went into a panic. Will it break her heart if I guess wrong? I quickly thought back over our previous conversations for clues as to what it might be. Earlier, she had asked me why our secretary had a bow taped to her PC monitor. I told her I didn’t know, that perhaps it was to make it look pretty. She then asked me why I didn’t have a bow on my laptop to make it look pretty. “Because I don’t have a bow to put there” I had told her. Perhaps this was a picture of a bow I thought, she drew me a bow for my laptop. “It’s a pretty bow.” I guessed. “NO! Silly goose, it’s a cell phone.’” She told me. I can’t explain why, I guess you’d have to be there, but being called a “silly goose” made me suddenly break out in a roarous laughter. She smiled at me again, happy I could tell that she had made me laugh and sat back down. Grinning at her, I put my “new cell phone” down on my desk and began working once more. “Ring, ring, ring,” I heard over my laptop. Turning sideways to look around my screen at this cute little girl, who was staring at me intently, I heard “Well? Aren’t you going to answer your phone?” “Oopps, my bad!” I told her as I picked up my new 5 x 7 card cell phone. “Hello?” We then proceeded to converse once more, covering such important worldly topics as our favorite colors, why boys can be mean, especially one named Billy and strangely enough the fit and feel of newly bought tennis shoes. The conversation flowed naturally and it kept me giggling the whole time.
Soon June was calling out it was time for them to go. I taped my new “cell phone” to my laptop for all to see. She proudly watched and smiled at me as I did this. I mean really, isn’t a cell phone on a laptop much cooler than a bow on a PC monitor. And handing them both a few pieces of candy for the road, I gave June a little grin, a wink and then waved good bye to the three of them from the door as they left.
Upon returning to my desk with a sigh, I saw the workload had somehow not miraculously decreased during the past hour and a half or so. But at least now I felt much less overwhelmed and not so frustrated. Somehow my little visitors had relieved my stress. And as I leaned back sitting in my chair I couldn’t help but think to myself, maybe I should do that more often. Say to myself, “Dangerous, this is too much like work, don’t you want to play?” And then actually go do it! Perhaps the things that life can throw at you would be so much easier to deal with and much less stressful to handle if we just played a little more often. Tomorrow I think I’ll start my day by taking my new 5x7 cell phone and making a few calls, I wonder if those two precious little girls are going to be busy.
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