The boy

I had a conversation with the boy today, the type I've grown so fond of during his almost 9 years of life. Whenever i pick him up from school, we talk. We talk about all kinds of things. He's always curious and asks me a lot of questions. I'm honest with him because he understands, or at least attempts to. Today he was asking me about making communion. You see, he goes to a catholic school but we aren't catholic. Well, both my wife and i were raised that way but neither of us follow any faith. I think my wife simply doesn't care where i have made a conscious decision that I'm not a religious person. I'm not an atheist and i don't profess to know anything, i just kinda roll with it. Anyhow, the rest of his class is making this act of faith while he is not. I ask him how he feels, if he feels left out and he insists that he doesn't, i believe him. I asked him if he understood why they're making confession and communion because he does still have to do the classes and go to church and all, and as i suspect, he doesn't. I didn't when i was his age, going through it, it didn't make a bit of sense to me, which is where my issue lies in having children do things they don't understand. Anybody, really. I try to live a life of intent where i am aware of the things I'm doing and why. I can't fathom doing things senselessly or simply because its what I've been taught or what others do. As I'm being oh so profound with this boy who is getting it, I'm driving. We pass through an intersection and the police have the road blocked due to an accident. Everyone is taking a detour through the parking lot and i follow. Isaac asks me are you supposed to be cutting through the parking lot? I said I don't know, but everyone else is doing it. I started laughing cuz he was laughing and trying to tell me that i just said i do everything with purpose, i don't just follow....and here i am. I understood what he was saying and it was quite funny catching myself being mindless while being profound and its humbling to know that I'm only human. And none of that even really matters, it's more about the relationship i share with this kid and how he feeds this curious side of me. If i don't have an answer for something he asks, we find out together, i don't have to know everything only be willing to find out with him and therein lies a lesson greater than any ego trip i could be on trying to know it all. I'm a lucky dude to have two kids, so completely different, but both just like me in some way, some fulfilling way that life has never given until now, and it was well worth the wait. I hope they know it.