I want to come back a Dog

A parent came up to me as I was walking by Espresso 77, on my way to the train. 

“Your son gave my daughter a good explanation of reincarnation yesterday,” she said, after saying hello. She was smiling and seemed to be good natured about her comment so I smiled back. 

“I hope that was all right,” I said.

“Yes,” she said. “He told Pea that after you died you could come back as a human or animal and she was okay with it except that she didn’t want to come back as a dog.”

I nodded and she waved as she moved on. I stopped for water and a check on my yoga advertisement at Espresso 77 and wondered again about my son’s ability to absorb all that we tell him. I also wondered if it was a good idea talking to him about reincarnation. It had come up last year when his Gran had died. I hadn’t been very articulate about explaining death and when he pressed me I told him about reincarnation. “Some people believe this and some people believe… ” I went on and on. I hoped that Mom-ita would untangle things from there because I certainly couldn’t.

Then, after a drink of cool water and a moment to straighten out my business cards, I simply let myself be amazed that Pea went to M-ito when she had this question (she somehow knew that he had an answer) and that M-ito so matter of factly answer her. When I talked to him about it later he told me, “I wanted her to feel better about it.” I’m not sure what it was. Death? Animals? Transmutation of the soul? Then I was simply glad that he had wanted to help her.

800 Numbers

Mom-ita found a piece of paper by on the coffee table. There were 800 numbers written on it in M-ito’s handwriting. She asked him about them and he said, “I wanted to write down the numbers of the things I wanted us to buy.”

M-ito has been watching commercials these days on Animal Planet and it’s been a little unnerving to see the power of advertising. He now thinks Mom-ita and I need foot patches because we have dry feet. That Activia will help us both with digestion. And the Dyson vacume cleaner would make vacuming for all of us easier because “it has this ball on the bottom that makes it go from side to side easier.”

Last night he didn’t want to come to dinner because a commercial was on. “I’ll be right there,” he said. 

“But its a commercial,” Mom-ita said. “We’ll tape your show so you can watch it when we’re finished.” When it was silent for  while she said. “You want to watch the commercial, don’t you?”

Almost mindlessly, like an automaton, he nodded and whispered, “Yes.” Then he picked up his pen to write down the number that was flashing on the screen.