I was talking to a new acquaintance the other day, not yet a friend but I think that’s a possibility down the line. Anyway, he has a really big brain and it was being put to good use tackling the broad ranging subject of “fathers and sons.” I am both, so I was all in.
The big brain was in high gear, firing away, creating all kinds of interconnected pathways loosely tied to my comment, “It’s hard to tell what’s going on in the mind of an almost 11 year old boy these days.”
As the brain cranked up I tried to appear calm, nodding earnestly and occasionally injecting things like, “Ahhh” or “I see.” The information was coming in so fast that I had a hard time sifting through it and putting thoughts into logical buckets so I could tackle the concepts one by one, later on, while driving around in the car (my preferred place to think these days). I tried to jot down notes figuring that if I had a few on paper it would help out but, somehow, after 30 minutes or so, I managed to erase them with one poorly placed backspace. Serves me right, note to self, ditch the Notes section on the iPhone, always use pencil and paper.
At about 45 minutes into the convo, just when I was about to tap out and admit I was totally lost and that I forgot what we were talking about, the big brain says, “yep, and that’s key, just like the Maasai, you know, they hunt lions.” Wait, what? The who, do what, and why? “It’s a coming of age thing.” Ahhh, suddenly it clicked and the pathways began to connect.
You can Google the who, what and why. All I will say is that through this encounter with the big brain I have come to realize that in our crazy modern world, ancient rituals need to be experienced in crazy modern ways. We need to create experiences that allow us to tap into the common bonds that run though past, present and future. Proactively tap into them together. And that as a father I need to ensure this is happening, cause at almost 11, boys need to hunt lions.
Now, I need to go. Its Saturday morning and Vince and I are off to…
Onward->
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