When I asked why, the seven year old shot back without thinking of what he was REALLY saying, "Cuz you're house is too dirty!" Then, likely thinking about what he REALLY meant to say, and not wanting to insult us, he reconsidered with, "Your house is too full of stuff!" Ah, from the mouths of seven year old babes!
OK, so we're a work in progress--a kid doesn't know that. Yes, we've got stacks of stuff we're sorta-kinda sorting--kinda. I know we've got boxes in the halls that must seem like they're anchored to the spot for the rest of time--but Joe had a point and wasn't shy about sharing!
Joe, at seven has no patience for frills or fluffery. Somewhere he's learned about "Yup" and "Sure" as his two survival words. He's a pint sized version of Gary Cooper or the monosylabic Mike Mansfield--plain spoken Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate in the 60s and 70s who used to drive reporters wild with his simple "Yups" and "Nopes". Joe is the tough guy of the family. That's the protectorate he has carved out for himself as number 3 after two pretty good older siblings. How I love him for it.
He's right! Our house is too full! In the same spirit of the Emperor's New Clothes, Joe has the guts to say what he sees, or as an old friend, Keith Robinson, who ran the physical systems in the then new Provo City Building, used to say with uncommon hardbitten bluster, "I calls 'em like I sees em!" JWH
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