Based on a true story, transcript only mildly fictionalized.
Lev, blond, three feet tall, just turned three years old
arrives at school.
Sage, blond, three feet tall, just turned three years old
arrives at school.
They are classmates, and they are new friends for each other.
Sage directs herself meaningfully across the yard
to Lev, halting and sincere she looks him in the eyeball and says:
“Lev you remember you painted me a picture for my birthday?
and you remember you came to my birthday party?”
Lev beams at her she pivots and meanders her way back to the yellow slide
I say to him: “Lev! Sage said she remembers that painting you made for her birthday!”
“Yeah!” he says with a bounce, both feet literally leaving the ground for a moment.
I walk over to Sage’s mom, Allison
“Did you see that? What kind of three year old is as
generous as that little girl?”
“I know, well, we really noticed that card you made.
We really liked it.” Then she made a joke, but she was serious, too:
“I’m telling you I want to institute a policy of kids only MAKING presents
for each other’s birthdays. I don’t know if I’m allowed to
do that, but I think it would be great.”
“We really liked making it, too. We thought about Sage
when we were doing it. It was great for us, too.”
Paola, teacher of these kids, with
one ear on us and one ear to the greater good says
“You know what I think? I think you guys
should write about what just happened and
put it on the blog.”
——————-
Jona, the writer of this tale, on behalf of Allison, who is not an iron fist.