Relearning A Boy's Way

A father became upset about the time his six-year-old son took to get home from school.  He determined to make the trip himself to see how long it should take to cover that distance.  He concluded that twenty minutes maximum was enough, but his son was taking well over an hour.

Finally the father decided to walk with his son.  After that trip the man said, "The twenty minutes I thought reasonable was right, but I failed to consider such important things as a side trip to track down a trail of ants. . . or a stop to watch a man fix a flat. . . or the time it took to swing around a half-dozen telephone poles. . . or how much time it took for a boy just to get acquainted with two stray dogs.

"In short, I had forgotten what it is like to be six years old."

- submitted by Don E. McKenzie, Parables, Etc. (October 1993)