A quote: “You can put your boots in the oven but that doesn’t make them biscuits.” ~~ American Proverb
I’ll start with a story …
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You’re in the tree again, Jamie?
Sure, Zoey, it’s fun.
I thought you were a girl.
Yeah, I am.
Girls don’t climb trees.
I’m a girl, Zoey. I’m doing it
I’m telling, Jamie! TEACHER!
Jamie, come down.
Aw, Ms. Grundy!
Right now, Jamie. Let’s talk. Are you happy at home?
Yes! I love my mom and dad …
Your what?
Oh. My parents. I love my parents.
Are they keeping you from being a boy? There’s nothing wrong if you feel like a boy. Tell me. I won’t tell them.
I’m a GIRL, teacher!
I’m taking you to the office.
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Now, it’s your turn.
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. featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock
GWB says: “You can put your boots in the oven but that doesn’t make them biscuits.”
Which is why I go barefoot.
Cameron says: “You’re going to give me a heart attack if you keep climbing that high,” I said.
She laughed and settled in a bit higher. “I won’t fall.”
“You did once. That’s enough for me. What are you looking at?”
“Oh, the sky, the leaves-” she said as her voice trailed off.
“And..?” I asked. That was when I heard the distressed mew up above.
She looked at me pleadingly. “I can’t just leave him up there. And he’s all alone.”
I sighed. “I’ll go get a blanket to catch it. I suppose this saves us a trip to the pound.”
BlueCat49 says: Biden won the election.
Quentin Q Quill says: “When you lose half your IQ you’re left with Q.
Which is why I don’t belong to the Trump Party.
Lewis says: If you lose half your IQ you’re also left with an I on it ‘s own. When you find yourself up a tree without your I- pad, you just have to rely on what you’re told everyday from down below. No looking for the truth anymore!
Eat leaves and moss and shut the hell up! And don’t bother trying to come down!
Sparkl=y Spangles says: “Ms. Warrior, Terry’s in the tree again, shouted Cloey.”
Ms. Warrior, her purple fair flying behind her, scurried across the playground to the tree.
“Terry,” said Ms. Warrior, “You know students aren’t allowed to climb in trees.”
“It’s because I’m a girl isn’t it?”
“No Terry it’s because a student fell out of a tree once and now has traumatic brain injury and on top of that it has cost the school district millions of dollars.”
“Jesus friggin’ Christ,” thought Ms. Warrior to herself, “We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t.”
Quentin Q Quill says: Lewis, thanks for your thoughtful comments. Another danger of losing your I-pad when you’re up a tree is that you won’t know when Jewish space lasers are going to attack! Continue your search for truth!
Sheila Garrett says: She stood in the tower window, searching for the children. In the woods she saw the older boys, tarzaning through the treetops. But where was Mitsue? Then she saw her, a tiny figure behind the boys.
She was too small to reach as far as the boys and not strong enough to jump the distances they could. But she kept up, running along the branches until they bent under her light weight then diving for the next tree, utterly fearless, pausing only to see her next move, sunlight on her upturned face.
Mitsue . . . her little dragon.
Navig8r says: “That you back then, Grandma?”
“Yes.”
“What was it like?”
How to tell her? The adrenaline rush, the feeling of accomplishment, the world from above, the journeys of imagination to Tarzan movies, Swiss Family Robinson, crow’s nest on a ship, view to the edge of town . . .
She was old enough that kids could still climb trees, young enough that girls could too. The town was bigger now, but for her granddaughter just to see outside their gated community would be something.
Now it would cost charges of neglect for the parents and a sentence to foster care for her.
Sigh.
Tracy pulled herself up into the branches and looked out at the horizon gently curving upward until it was cut off by the axial cloud layer. Dr. Bose had said her brain checked out just fine: she was a perfectly normal girl with strong tomboy tendencies, nothing wrong with that. After a talk with her parents, she was allowed to climb trees and hunt for bugs in the habitat’s park again.
She just wished she could have a real sky like in the old-time movies from Earth.
Dupin says: Mine, all mine.
Sometime a boy or two’s out here, but they spend too much time on X-Boxes. They can’t compete. A few can get this far, but I start here.
They think dance and gymnastics is girly stuff, but it’s how I beat them. Plus climbing these trees whenever I can.
Some of them don’t like me. I beat them in the STEM stuff, too. They just don’t understand. Out here allows me to think, my brain to work.
Staring at a screen only allows you to think what they want you to think.
I’ll go that way today.
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