Cassidy Takes More Pictures

You can learn many things from children.

How much patience you have,
for instance.

-Franklin P. Jones

We have the most patient cat in the world.

His name is Brak. He’s 13 years old, arrogant, very demanding for love (he will jump up on your lap, and if you don’t pet him, he will bossily push against your palm with his head, forcing you to pet him against your will), and in my mind he speaks with a clipped British accent.

He is named for Brak from Cartoon Planet, a show that I was obsessed with at the time that I adopted him.

Cartoon Planet was a spin-off of Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast, and was organized in a “musical variety show” format. The best musical interlude, in my memory, was a duet called “Highway 40” sung by Brak and Freddie Prinze Jr. It was low-budget, uninhibited, G-rated gleeful silliness, and I loved it. Along with Tom & Jerry, Cartoon Planet was hands down my favorite cartoon series ever.

Here’s a sample (this may help you to understand my sense of humor a bit):

Cartoon Planet, regrettably, only lasted one season.

Anyway- I really veered off course there- I was hanging laundry the other day and Cassie was giggling like a maniac in my room. I’m talking high pitched, screaming, stomach cramp-inducing laughter.

I entered (with some slight fear of what I might encounter) to find poor old Braky wearing Cass’s sunglasses, but he was still sleeping, and snoring a bit; and when he snored the glasses would raise slightly. This, then, was the source of the hilarity.

I shook my head, handed her the camera, and went back to the laundry.

How wonderful it must be, to live a life where things are so funny that you laugh yourself into physical pain from witnessing them.

The maturity of man-
that means,
to have acquired the seriousness one had
as a child at play.

-Friedrich Nietzsche

That same day, I took her to preschool where she had a substitute teacher for the afternoon.

When I returned to pick her up, this teacher drew me aside to tell me that “never in all my years of teaching, have I seen a child with such an exuberance for life.“

I smiled and thanked her vaguely, as you do when someone compliments your children- I mean, I have little to do with it, I feel odd for accepting a compliment for another person. I’m no good at accepting compliments intended for me.

But when we got to the car, tears sprang to my eyes and I had to take a few deep gulps of air, pressing my forehead to the steering wheel. Because this statement made me so happy.

It felt like the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.

It felt like I am doing something right. I don’t know how else to explain it.

What’s the best thing anyone has ever said to you?
Do you accept compliments gracefully?
(And what’s your favorite cartoon?)