Passion of the Citizen
The other day Sandler overheard someone mention he was the most passionate person they had ever met. As a mom, I took that as a compliment, however the moment slightly deflated when Sandler interrupted with, “Mommy, what does passionate mean?” At first I thought I had a simple definition, but when I tried to explain the feeling I realized it [passion] is a tricky emotion to describe. Once again, Sandler had stumped me and my wikipedia skills.
Some days I find his inquiries thought provoking and endearing; other days I find them to be challenging and exhausting. Trying to encapsulate such a strong feeling into words was baffling. Finally, I answered, “It’s how you feel about skateboarding.” That definition seemed to register, and he had a new word of the week to add to his ever-expanding vocabulary list.
Per usual, to get a break from my little “Jeopardy contestant”, I took him to the skatepark. As he rolled around, I enjoyed being free from my dictionary duties and chatted with some fellow parents. I savored some adult conversation and caught wind of a city council meeting regarding expanding the skatepark. Now to be completely honest, going to a city council meeting did not sound like much fun, but as I drove home I felt compelled to go and voice my approval on upgrading our second home.
As we turned into the parking lot of City Hall, I tried to make it sound exciting and adventurous. I told Sandler it was like a field trip; there would be some boring topics, but I explained it was an opportunity to tell the community we support making the skatepark bigger and better. I may have over-exaggerated how much fun we were going to have, but whatever I said worked—and Sandler was pumped to be there.
Upon entering the intimidating room full of serious faces, I was told the skatepark was no longer on the agenda. It was too late to turn around and exit. The choir began singing the national anthem, and Sandler hummed with eager anticipation to hear the whole town talk about skateboarding. Five minutes into the meeting, he was wondering when it was going to be “our turn”. I kept shushing him, hoping not to irritate the room full of police and politicians. After a few more outbursts from the disgruntled citizen [Sandler], it was time to excuse ourselves and avoid making the evening news.
Confused as to why I was hustling him out, he shouted, “Mommy… what happened? You didn’t use your ‘passion’ and go up front to tell everyone about the skatepark!” I could not help but to be a little proud that he finally understood exactly what passion meant, but he chose to execute his newfound vocabulary precisely as I dragged him out of City Hall.
- Nikki