come to think of it

i think nine-year-olds, both boys and girls, are sort of ideal humans. it's the first and last time they will be unadulteratedly earnest and complicated at the same time. it is at a point of significant language skill, but before their brains are belittled or evacuated by the sexual politics of middle school or junior high. it is long before they are incapacitated by the unearned bitternesses, triumphs and resentments of adulthood.

for example. i had the great luck of sitting next to a nine-year-old boy on a plane on my way home from a job visit, a flight very early in the morning in a very cold part of the country, during a very stressful time of my life. his opening conversation gambit was to ask if i had been down any famous rivers. i answered that i didn't think i had, to which he responded by asking if i had been to any famous countries. he was very impressed that i had been to england, which he noted was really famous. then he offered to share his DVD player with me. it was the most pleasant exchange i had had in weeks.

or, a nine-year-old girl lives across the street from us. she is totally unselfconscious about wearing glittery headbands and t-shirts that say "GIRLS ROCK," all the while bragging about her good grades and begging me to let her pick up the puppy's poop. and i would proffer that this is how things should be.