Dr. Metablog

We’re in Washington visiting our four-year-old granddaughter (and her parents, of course).  This morning I walked the little girl to her Montessori pre-school. As we passed some dormant rhododendrons, the grand-daughter told me that she saw a "very large antelope" resting under the bushes.  I like her style — not a dog, or even a deer — an antelope!  And a very large one to boot.  I love her sincerity, and I love it that she’s still young enough to live in the imagination.  What a gift!

Here are some other "stretchers"  — Huck Finn’s word  — that she’s told me during this visit.  That she once ate thirteen bananas in a row.  That her mother and her grandmother had just gone to the Antarctic.  That she had six brothers and eleven sisters.  That the cheese that she was eating was made entirely of "green slimy boogers."  That she had just pooped on her cat.  That she built the neighbor’s new picket fence.  "You did?  How did you do it?"   "With power tools."   That she had eaten a whole meal of eyeballs.

Well, she’ll have to live in the world of hard facts soon enough.  Everyone must, even those of our leaders who would prefer to reject the "reality-based"  universe.  I say, let her enjoy the fantasy just as long as she is able.