So my son and I were just sitting, periodically glancing at each other. This is one of the classic, deeply philosophical father and son discussions. Other meaningful father and son conversations include watching television and periodically rolling our eyes or the short but poignant flicking of wadded up pieces of paper at each other.
Anyhow, at some point I decided to try the extremely risky tact of actually saying something. I knew I was an idiot because Generation X-ers like bullet points and text messages while baby boomers easily become lost in their own digressions.
"You know," I said, instantly falling into homily, "when you get to be my age..."
He looked at me, rolled his eyes and flicked a piece of paper simultaneously. Young people are so good at multi-tasking. But it was effective and I instantly forgot what I was going to say. Unfortunately, that didn't stop my stream of consciousness from flowing out of my mouth.
"When you get to be my age, I'm sure that you will find yourself saying things like 'when you get to be my age' to people who are your age. Of course, they haven't been born yet but when they get to be your age and you get to be my age and you say 'when you get to be my age' they will immediately tune out. Because that's what I always did when I was your age and somebody my age started a sentence with 'when you get to be my age.' Of course, most of those people who were my age when I was your age are dead now."
"I don't expect you to understand this now, son," I summarized. "But when you get to be my age, I'm sure it will make sense to you."
I looked over at him. He was texting someone.
"Anyhow, I'm glad we had this little talk," I said and flicked the paper wad back at him.
