There are days we see everything and days it seems we see nothing. Times we feel like screaming and others we want nothing more than to sing. When I was a young boy, I used to sing more.
Through small, crooked teeth I would inaudibly mumble out a song while organizing my model train set with my father. Along with being a craftsman, he’s also a musician, so he’d sing along with me as we put everything together. We weren’t always in harmony–we tended to be nowhere close–but it didn’t matter. We were more than a vocal duo and building much more at the time than model trains.
Several different types of pieces composed the set–there were the train cars, the tracks, the surrounding scenery, and the faceless figurine people. Each of those distinct objects was organized together when we broke down the set, putting each into their own buckets.
“Why?” I asked, as I always would. “Why don’t they just put all the pieces in one big bucket, dad?”
“Because, buddy, it makes it easier this way when we need to make sense of things.”
“So, it’s better?”
“Hmm . . . I don’t know if it’s better. Just easier.”
I would ponder it. We’d start with the tracks before setting the scenery, people, and last, the train cars–always in that order. It seemed to make the most sense because we’d done it this way plenty of times.
Again, I asked, “But why? Each track is a different shape than the others.”
He laughed. “Yea, that they are.”
“So why don’t they each get their own bucket? Wouldn’t that make it easier-er?
“Well, no. Because then there’d be a whole lot of buckets. One for each individual piece.”
“Oh yea. So, that wouldn’t be better.”
“Well, actually . . .” He laughed again and made a mess of my hair, rubbing it as dads do. “You’re too much, you know that?”
I started singing again as I continued on the tracks and he was quick to join in. I sure was fortunate to have him to help me with both.
Having had the chance to reflect on it, I think today I’ll sing. And hope you’ll join me.
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QOTD: I used to be OBSESSED with trains growing up. What was your childhood favorite thing/activity?
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