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Thursday
Sep292011

It's best to be humble about having boy geniuses

I was chopping wood and Quin came out with a piece of paper in each hand. They were drawings he'd done at school, and one of them was for me. I know children's art can be questionable, but when it's for you, well then it's a masterpiece.

What really struck me about his latest work, is that overnight he's been able to draw people. I'm not talking about Norman Rockwell here, but the early circle-with-arms-and-legs humanoids that come with a kid's artistic progression. He handed me my copy and said, "Dad, that's you." And there I was, a wobbly brown circle with four appendages. To my son, I look like a damaged potato, but I hope he could tell how proud I was.

From l to r: daddy, daddy and daddy.I do get excited about these things. Some of it, at least a little bit, is forced upward into the proud-o-sphere. I'm not saying it's forced into existence, but what's there I kick a little higher. I can feel myself doing it--actually I see myself doing it in this kind of awkward out-of-body scrutiny. You'd think that would stop me, but I have this fear that if I don't glow with immense pride the boys will grow up with as many doubts about their ability as I have. I mean I could do something, and do it well, but upon recognition, deny I ever even did it. And then tell the recognizer they really have no idea what they're talking about.

So I hear myself proclaiming greatness and stacking even more greatness on top of that, and then, in realizing it could be dangerous letting the boys think they're already geniuses, I add a "you need to keep working at it" on top of the serenade sundae.

I held Quin's crayon version of me and blinked it into my reality. I was amazed that a kid who was drawing scribbles yesterday was handing me renditions of people today. He was pretty confident about it yet not at all acting like it was a huge leap in artistry. I asked him, "Since when have you been able to draw so well?" and he replied, "I do it at at school."

Of course he does. He does everything at school and we never hear about it. He's already the teenager who says "nothing" when we ask what happened during his day. His time in the brightly colored learning institution surrounded by play structures, crowded with children and teaching professionals, and billions of years of organic progress thrusting upwards past lava, meteors and ice selves and into the smooth little hand of a kid with a writing utencil, and "nothing." 

"Anything else?" we ask hoping for a revelatory statement about his academic advancement and/or a glimpse into what could be a lucrative talent that could lead to his parent's early retirement, and he replies, "I played."

I felt something though on a warm September day when he gave me my portrait . I could complain that it lacked detail, but I liked bold strokes of ambiguity. Sure, the circle with the sticks could be anybody, but the artist proclaimed it to be me, and so far I like his confidence. I could spend years chiseling a wood likeness of Jesus and then insult his judgement when the King of Kings came down to witness it. I was happy when Quin handed me the piece, and then dropped an unceremonious, "This is for you," as he spun away, whirling with better things to do the green grass of the back lawn.

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Reader Comments (2)

Nathan does that too - "Nothing". His drawings have progressed to now having bodies and for some reason, belly buttons. Every single person has a giant belly button. Just typing that makes me laugh a little bit.
October 1, 2011 | Unregistered CommenterJamie
Keep "nothing" in your vocabulary, you most definitely will hear it quite often once they get into upper school! I think my seniors English teacher has programmed it in to his brain! But I love the picture...it brings back so many memories.
October 5, 2011 | Unregistered Commenterscooter

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