Reflections Contest

Adam wanted to enter a submission in this year's Reflections Contest at school. The theme this year is, "Together We Can..." Of course, the ellipsis at the end of the sentence indicates that the child should imagine a proper ending to the thought. Adam and I spent a fair amount of time one evening thinking of possibilities. "Together we can make the world a better place" or "Together we can make someone happy." But none of these felt quite right to Adam. I even suggested that "Together we can clean the kitchen" but surprisingly my proposal was met only with a vacant stare. He even reminded me that I needed to get more serious about helping him because his sights were set higher than a second place ribbon.

But as the evening wore on, there was a moment where the clouds parted and a stroke of genius alighted in Adam's brain where it took up residence and made itself quite comfy. The winning Reflections idea had just waltzed in and shook hand's with Adam's consciousness. So Adam put crayon to paper and began to draw. And what emerged was magnificence not seen since the days of the Renaissance.

"Together We Can Build Cars."

I hope you inserted a self-imposed moment of silence there before you continued reading, because if any occasion deserves one, it would clearly be this one. If not, go ahead and take one now.

OK. Now, I'm not biased, but how could anyone not see that this nugget deserves more than simple gape-mouthed awe and admiration. We're talking about building CARS here, people. With little monkey-wrenches and everything...building CARS.

It's a lot of fun to see Adam being creative and developing his talents. We wish him luck in the Reflections contest this year. Now let's go build some cars...together.