Harry Chapin is singing Cats In The Cradle and I am surprised to find myself a bit teary eyed. Life is moving at ridiculous speed and big changes are taking place all around me. Somewhere inside me the boy who was can hear Han tell Chewie to “Punch it” and it feels like it is all I can do to stay a step ahead of the Imperial destroyers that are chasing me.
That almost eleven year-old son of mine loves Star Wars too, but he has different reference points than I do. I think of the original pictures and remember Darth Vader as being among the most evil creatures around. But his exposure to Star Wars has been different. The Clone Wars are what light up his eyes and so he talks/thinks about other characters.
Truth is that I am good with that. He doesn’t have to be like me. He doesn’t need to be me. I love him regardless but it feels a bit weird not to be as familiar with the cultural reference points he thinks of.
My son turned ten just the other day
He said, “Thanks for the ball, Dad, come on let’s play
Can you teach me to throw”, I said “Not today
I got a lot to do”, he said, “That’s ok”
And he walked away but his smile never dimmed
And said, “I’m gonna be like him, yeah
You know I’m gonna be like him”
And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin’ home son?
I don’t know when, but we’ll get together then son
You know we’ll have a good time then
Well, he came home from college just the other day
So much like a man I just had to say
“Son, I’m proud of you, can you sit for a while?”
He shook his head and said with a smile
“What I’d really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys
See you later, can I have them please?”
Moseyed on down to the LA Auto Show to see the new cars and to attend the Nintendo press conference where I got to see Reggie Fils-Aime, president and COO of Nintendo of America unveil real life creations of two cars from the Mario Kart 7 game. Yes, the Luigi Bumble V kart you see below actually runs as does the Mario Kart that was there as well.
And had my son been able to attend I can assure you that he would asked Dad for the car keys. Sadly I didn’t get a chance to test drive either one in real life. The closest I got was a few minutes spent playing the game on the 3DS.
It is probably worth noting that was a lot closer than I got to test driving the Maybach that I saw on the floor which candidly speaking caught my eye primarily because I want to know what a car that goes for about $350k is like. Unless I win a ridiculous amount of money it is unlikely that I will ever own one but I am good with that too.
My kids can thank me later because that decision means that they’ll have a roof over their heads, food to eat and clothes on their back. I am sort of playing around with giving one of the characters in my book a Maybach just so that he can unroll the window and ask for Grey Poupon. If I do I am fairly certain that he’ll be one of those eccentric men who insists that his car also be able to play 8-track cassettes that he buys second hand at the Rose Bowl swap meet.
Speaking of which it is well after 1 am and in spite of the 129 ounces of coffee I drank today I am going to get some sleep….soon. But first I have to add a few more sections to the story and try to figure out how the boy I used to cradle in my arms got to be so damn big overnight…
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