#141 What’s in a Name?

 When Aladdin came out, Grandpa did the heroic and took all the boy cousins to the theater. Jack came home bubbling with excitement. Thinking I had never heard of, or seen anything like, what he had just seen, he began to recount the entire tale to me. Two minutes into his narration, the following occurred:

Jack: And then there was this bad guy...

Me: Jafar?

Jack: (completely confused) Who? 

Me: The bad guy? Jafar?

Jack: (in a tone suggesting a complete lack of caring, and a slight hint of annoyance at being interrupted) Yeeeah... I don’t know. Anyway, there was a bad guy...

Yep. That’s my boy. He had just watched all of Aladdin—paying enough attention to recount the entire tale, and he didn’t recognize the name, Jafar. To be fair, though, I have read entire books, and couldn’t have told you the main character’s name. As Shakespeare once said, “What’s in a name?” (or, whoever that girl on the balcony was, that said that). 

#140 Not to Be Rude

Here is an oldie from Jack’s days as a five-year-old. 

Life hands us what we call “light bulb moments” from time to time; one such time was Haircut Day. 

I had cut Jack’s hair first, and he scurried off to Grandma’s to dawn the new ‘do. Shortly after, I followed with Sam—sporting the same new look. When Sam and I walked through the door there was Jack. He promptly burst into a laughter that only Jack can produce (it's a sound somewhere between complete joviality and heartless cruelty—you’d know it if you heard it). 

He not only laughed but lifted a pointing finger and said to Sam, “You look weird!” with his continued Jack laugh—and then an abrupt stop. “Wait. Is that what I look like?” As quickly as he had burst into laughter, he ran to the nearest mirror. “I look weird.” And he burst out laughing.

And that is when life handed me a light bulb. All these years I had thought Jack loved saying things to hurt people’s feelings—just for kicks. It turns out, he’s just saying whatever thought crosses his mind. If he thinks your hair looks weird, he will probably say so. And if he thinks his hair looks weird, he will also probably say so.