Men Are Just Born With It

You learn an awful lot about yourself and human nature by watching a child. You can begin to distinguish learned behaviors from those you're born with.

Elliott became a little grumpy this afternoon at grandma and grandpa's house. Nothing could please him. In fact, every toy he played with frustrated him and buried him a little deeper in his doldrums. He had crawled in a hole so deep it made you wonder what would ever bring him out again.

Thank you Jenny, the young girl from next door, for providing that answer. She stopped by to visit in the middle of Elliott's funk and within seconds it was if he had never had a funk - ever. He danced around with his biggest smile and was making a very obvious effort to impress her. If he was a bit older than 18 months we would call it flirting. But just because we won't call it that it doesn't mean its not.

Now I love Elliott's mama dearly, but after you've been together going on ten years, you realize you've probably impressed her as much as you're ever going to with dancing and smiles so you go about it in more subtle ways. You clean the house, do some laundry here and there, toss in a flower or two along with an anniversary card on the right day, and you've probably been as impressive as your capable of being at this point in time.

My point is Elliott hasn't learned his outward desire to impress the opposite sex from me, nor anyone else that I can recall. He, me and all men are just born with it I suppose. Which would mean that the various levels of foolishness we have resorted to or continue to demonstrate (Elliott) to impress the ladies, well it should be regarded as a bad storm, an unavoidable force of nature.

It is a powerful force. In fact, I asked Jenny if I could have her phone number in case Elliott suffered a relapse on the way home.

Elliott is a blessing in our lives. We appreciate everything he allows us to learn about ourselves and our world every day.