Our Side of the Mountain

My boys like the complaining.  Car rides are too long.  Walking hurts legs.  This Chateau LeBlanc is supposed to be served slightly chilled, not room temperature.  They never want to go anywhere.  Once they are there they never want to leave.  They never want mustard on their burger unless you make it without it.  They want interest on any money I may borrow. You know, all the standards. It's kind of pathetic.

So it was against all things better judgment and common sense that we took them on a hike.  Their first hike.  A long hike.  A hike filled with switchback trails and steep paths.  A hike that many adults have complained about.  Actually, it was kind of an accident.

Do you know what the boys said?

Nothing.  Not a word.  At least not a word of complaint.

They ran.  They laughed. They were on an adventure.  And therein lies the secret: adventure.

Walking to the ice cream parlor is exciting.  As you may have guessed, there is ice cream there.  Walking back from the ice cream parlor is an exercise in exercise.  You're full.  The kids are hot.  They want to be carried.  You want to be carried.  There may be puke.  Walking from the ice cream parlor is slightly less exciting.  In fact, it kind of sucks.

That's because ice cream is not an adventure.  It's a treat and a damn good one, but it doesn't do much for the imagination.  Walks to ice cream shops aren't filled with pirates and wild animals.  Walks from ice cream shops aren't filled with stairs to lairs and the possibility of quicksand.  Ice cream is good, but it's just ice cream.  And it's usually in a strip mall.  Or your grocer's freezer.

Kids are spoiled.

We walked miles.  Up, over and around a mountain.  There were lions, tigers and bears.  But mostly bears.  The sun was lost in the canopy. The moon was in the wings. The paths were narrow and railed with thorns and missteps.  Some might say there was danger lurking.

Yet, each new bend opened like a freshly turned page.  Adventure was theirs for the choosing and they wrote their story by running across it. 

And here I am writing it down.