When We Were Kings

Big air...little kid. Learning to fly was mostly a summer pursuit.

Wanna learn how to spend a summer? Follow any nine year old boy worth his salt around around and you'll get a glimpse of why we were meant to have two months off each year. It's a time for re-charging, for exploring, for a different kind of learning, experimenting, adventuring, challenging yourself, making friends, etc...endless etc... Little boys get summer right.

My cousin Scitter used to jump off of perfectly good structures that had water beneath them. I mean giant things, and he was generally the scourge of Midland, ON for at least a decade. He knew how to enjoy a summer. A little bit of trouble, a lot of laughter, plenty of adventures, never too much boredom. He used to jump from the roof of his house into his pool. It's safe to say that Scotty knew his limits, it's just that he learned early on that they were a lot further out than he had expected. That's a young man taking advantage of his summer. If you can wipe away even a fraction of timidity and build just a sliver of new confidence, all while dripping wet and laughing your @$& off, well, that's pretty much a definitively good summer. Nowadays people replace that kind of awesome with beers around campfires, and grilling steaks on $900 BBQs. Gimme a cold hot dog as I run out the door with my towel in hand and some change in my pocket so I can pillage the variety store later. Ice cream is a perfectly acceptable lunch.

In just two weeks time I feel twelve years old. I take my time going to bed. I linger a little every morning. I forget what day it is. I want to do something fun and different every day. Camp Zed is turning me into a twelve year old boy that wants to jump homemade ramps and swim in rivers, and eat like crap everyday. It reminds me of a dozen or so summer's when I was free to figure out who I was and wear myself out trying. I think we forget the value in that. Certainly the working world has tried to beat it out of us, but there it is, still there if you get the opportunity, to remind us that we're all needing a little re-charging, and a lot more adventure and fun. I don't recommend jumping off of things, especially the roof of your parents house, but a ramp is easy enough to build. As the song says, "summer's here and the time is right..."

Now if you'll excuse me I have to go wake our daughter and then get busy smelling of sunscreen and irresponsibility.