“I wonder why they’re called storm troopers? They don’t even make storms…” he says, staring up at me through those little glasses, his head resting on a pillow at the foot of the bed. Gavin has come to keep me company as I sit here in the bedroom, still resting and recovering from Wednesday’s surgery. He hasn’t stopped talking for about ten minutes straight, he’s hardly even breathed. The topic has seamlessly transitioned from Star Wars to the Avengers and back to Star Wars again. It’s really quite remarkable. It’s also quite remarkable that he hasn’t noticed the frozen peas that are currently resting in a most unusual place. Or, if he has noticed, he doesn’t seem to think it’s weird.
I love that boy. I love the seriousness in his eyes as he tells me about the Chick-fil-a comic book he just brought home. “See, he isn’t a super hero yet because he hasn’t been trained.” I love how his career goal is, as it has been for the past three years, to be a ninja. He’s constantly daydreaming of adventures, sword fights, super powers, villains and heroes. He wants so badly to be in an epic battle. He wants to save the day. He wants to be great.
In that way, he’s like the rest of us. Only, as we grown older, our adventures seem to have far less compelling story lines and heroes and villains become much harder to distinguish.
In his own innocent way, he reminds me that, while we are no super-heroes, we are all made to do something important. We are meant to leave the world different than we found it. We are called to leave our mark. And although, it seems it’s hard-wired into each and every one of us, we still need to be reminded every once and a while. We need to have those dreams reawakened again. We need to rediscover that sense of idealistic optimism, the child-like wonder that keeps our aspirations from being crushed under relentless waves of busyness, distractions and disappointment.
We are here for a reason. We have work to do. Important work. Work that can change the world, at least the parts of it that we have been entrusted to influence.
Thanks for the reminder buddy… and yes, I do think Wolverine is stronger than Hawkeye.
reecently.blog 
Reece…You should have heard the very heated discussion going on at Gavin’s table last week when some of the kids tried to tell him that Ninja’s were not real!!! He definitely informed them that they were and that he was going to be one when he grew up. The whole table ended up at my desk for a resoultion to their disagreement and I had to let them know that I was not that educated on Super Heroes but if Gavin’s daddy said so then it MUST be true! You are, without a doubt his earthly Super Hero!!! 🙂 He is very lucky to have such GREAT parents!
That is awesome! He told me about the ninja controversy at school. Thanks for stepping in there.
Smart kid, Reece, let him follow in your footprints for you must give him the directions he will need to give his kids one day.