Anaheim flew by in the sky, while the world whispered with the voice of a thousand volts which pushed us along through a future imagined in the past…
If there’s one thing I notice about being a father, it’s the constant recall of my son’s infancy…a sentimental sigh over the times when he was so oblivious to the world around him, but taking it in all the same, in big wide eyes that knew not right or wrong.
Older now, he is still that ever-absorbent sponge, but now as commentating as he is curious, with my wife and I constantly on the ready to supply the data he needs to fill his banks. Now, more than ever, we make as much a world of difference to him as the world itself, as he trusts our every answer, listens intently to our intentions, and inhales his vocabulary with our every breath.
Where do all the words go? They’re transferred in new, insightful conversations with his peers in a language that us adults can now understand, when before we were as oblivious as babies ourselves, to his communicative giggles and gurgles which probably had the exact same meanings.
Yes, now the world makes sense to him. What may have been just a nice view in the front of Disneyland’s Monorail has now evolved into a complete, thrilling adventure high in the night sky, alongside his buddy Brandon as they both took flight, free from our sheltering wings to fly on their own.
Their delight is spoken to each other over the din of the engine, when before they did nothing more than squeak and squeal. I smile as I listen to their conversation, running my hands over the molded interior of the monorail’s cockpit, remembering when it was a pure childhood fantasy of mine to be where he is now. I never knew one could ride up front when I was a kid. It turns out, all I had to do was ask.
Then that bittersweet taste arrived once more, with the realization that as I grew closer to my son, so did I too prepare him for his departure…
