Honesty by a Nose

Cub Sweetheart and I are just off a week-long jaunt of keeping two of our younger grandkids - 24/7 and as the days rolled one into another, the kids got more and more comfortable with us.

Somewhere in the middle of that time we were driving down the road in our grey minivan. Us in the front, the two of them in the middle, strapped into sticky booster seats.

Riding along, they were chattering to each other and we were having some adult conversation. Out of the blue the 5 year old said in a loud, clear voice, 'Papa, I used to pick my boogers.'

Papa, with a straight face, said, 'really? Nahhhhh!'

'Oh yes I did, and brother did too.'

Then a laugh bubbled up out of her, til her whole face was stretched to the limits with a cheshire cat-like grin, and she clapped her hands in delight at the funniness of it all.

Remember Papa? Back when I was little Papa, and I picked boogers?

She proceeded to explain, 'but I don't anymore. And neither does brother. Because we're big. We're not babies anymore.'

In the front seat we kept looking ahead, thinking over her delight in confessing behavior that she thought only appropriate for someone far younger than she was now. Finally not able to be serious a minute more, we both busted out laughing over her confession, her delight over telling us, and her relishing the fact that she had actually participated in what she saw as awful behavior to begin with. Scandalous!

What if we were all as honest as a five year old? What if we held nothing back, admitted we are human, prone to failures and fears and doubts and all the disgusting and disappointing and completely human traits that make us just that - human? What if we felt safe enough and had the courage or audacity to speak aloud those things we never even whisper to anyone?

'I, Bev, used to pick my nose. I don't anymore, or at least not very often, and certainly not when I'm sitting at a red light, because now I'm big.'

Food for thought for sure.