The longest distance between two points is the path taken by children. This is how boring I am as a parent: I don’t want to fall in the mud. I don’t want to sit on a tree covered with fire ants. I don’t want to slog ankle-deep through an algae-choked pool of dead water in a swamp. I don’t want to fall face-first on sandy rocks, or explore snake holes with my fingers, or cross a field of thick grass towards a barbed wire fence with there is a perfectly good path leading to a gap in the fence. This is why I am an adult and take calculated risks. If I’m thinking about going in mud and slop I’ll prepare ahead of time. But kids…they find much more interesting places to go than me. So I follow them across fields, through thickets of nettles, over slippery rocks and onto an old dam, and up onto ant-covered trees that make a perfectly fine place to sit for up to twenty seconds at a time.
To be fair, we found this wonderful trail and oak grove by following our noses when I proposed we go an Expedition this weekend. Listening to Number Two try to pronounce “expedition” was very similar to Derek Noakes trying to pronounce “ventriloquism” here (about 1 minute into clip).
Me: Ex-pe-di-shun
Number Two: ses-re-ne-nuh-shun
Me: Ex…peh…dish…un
Number Two: Share-ah-nish-iss!
Me: Let’s just saying we’re going on a trip.
Number Two: Yeah, dat’s a good idea!
Writer, architect, father, husband.