On the Human Condition

Yesterday, Odessa grandchild had her 6th birthday party. Her birthday is on March 5th, the same day as my son, Britt's. According to Bryan and Odessa's math she was 5 and 72/73 years old at the time of the party. My 96 year old Mama came on her golf cart. I remarked to Odessa that Gigi was 91 years older than she was. That stopped her for a minute. I think Odie somehow realized the significance of how old Gigi is. Take a lot of 6's to make 96.  Bean counting seems to be part of the human condition.

 My daughter Jesslyn and I were talking after the party about the dynamics of a gaggle of 5 and 6 year old girls and how they meld as a group, splitting into small groups, coming back together to accomplish some common goal, or to respond to a request from the "adults in charge".

The 10 girls seem perfectly capable of taking over the celebrating of a birthday, gently giving permission for the adults to "take a break, we'll handle this". Most parents have lost touch of how efficiently children organize parental lives, and how capable of taking care of most human functions a bunch of 6 year olds can be. They delegate, admonish, praise, feed and protect as a group.

I told that gaggle of gals a couple of stories. One story I told was Rendercella and the Pransome Young Hence. They did not seem to be confused by the Spooneristic approach to the Cinderella.story. They, as a group, translated "Gary fodmother, hix white sorces, sisty uglers and sass glippers" to each other, as needed. They all agreed it brought new light to Cinderella. Some liked it, most didn't. Change is not well received, even by children.

Again,  the human condition.

The girls then decided it was my turn to be told stories. Some of their stories were impromptu vignettes about cats, dogs and siblings. Others paraphrase Cinderella, the RIGHT way. I had forgotten what I learned from children when I was teaching.  Children are basically small adults very capable of telling stories, and they lack adult inhibitions. Kids do say the darndest things

 Jessie and I were talking about sisters, Taylor and Francis, who had been part of Odessa's life for years. Frances is a bit younger than Taylor and Odessa...and naturally bossed around. When she's had enough she will wander back into the adult world. Jessie recounted a time when Frances walked in as she was eating, and said, "I want some of that, what is it"?

Now, ain't that just like a human? Don't know what it is, but gotta have it. We come pre programmed, it seems.

Ah, the Human Condition?.