Endurance & Trains

"Years later now you're young" -a.r.

Children are exhausting when you get down to their level and play as ferociously as they do. A study has been done where top notch athletes imitate the movement and activities children perform as they play. Athletes did not weather the experiment and were simply unable to exert the same amount of energy needed to be a child again. I watch John push himself up from the floor where puzzle pieces are spread. Stickers of Care Bears are stuck to his forehead, stubbly cheeks, and the bottom of his shoes. Teo, 3, beams up at his Dada & decides that the puzzle we are working on has become boring and it is time for trains. John heads into the kitchen for a break and I am left with Teo's construction plans. Train tracks are to be assembled and they will stretch all the way to Ecuador, he tells me as he hands me a bridge. Teo and I are somewhere in Latin America when John returns. He is ready to assist us through the crazy country check points after just a minute or two break from play. Endurance, I think to myself. John climbed Pikes Peak just a few weeks ago and we all marveled at his ability to just get up and conquer the mountain. It is clear now that it was not sheer will that got him to the top but the endurance from rigorous play with Teo.

I remember my own Busia and her sisters who sat around Busia's bed, adoring each picture that I drew. (Even if I was obsessed at one point with the fact that boys could pee standing up & I was incredibly jealous and thus took my frustrations out in artform.) Busia tolerated endless hours of me sitting on her bed across from her, telling her all about the stories that I would write one day. I was enamoured with the idea of having a "pen name". And if I was super lucky, Auntie Lotty might visit and she would take me outside to swing. Once I got to mighty heights on my swing, she would dance in front of me. She shook her tush and it was a moving target for me to gently kick. If bullseye, she would jump and laugh. Endurance, I realize. These women could have climbed Pikes Peak. I will have to start by building train tracks to Ecuador.