We have email notifications turned on for our hoe phone, so we get an email for all incoming calls showing the number and CLI if available. We have been debating giving up the land line at home and utilize a google call number instead for this purpose. The sole reason for retaining the phone line is that the FIOS Triple Play package for phone, internet and cable is cheaper than just getting the cable and internet. Go figure why a bottle of water costs more than a bottle of soda. At some point when we may decide to give up cable all together we will drop the phone line as well. Currently we have the lowest tier local TV channels without the set top box, another cost saving factor.
Yesterday at work around noon my Samsung S2, on loan from my son, while he un-jailbreaks his phone for the watch to work, buzzed on my wrist indicating a new email has arrived and when I tapped on the notification it showed a call at home number from Nick's school. I remembered that if there is an emergency they would call Sara or me on our cell phones. since it was close to noon, I waited for the lunch break and then asked Sara and indeed she had received a call from school about Nick bumping into a pole but nothing serious, just a bit shaken up. Sara had talked to him and all was okay.
Back home in the evening after dinner I was sitting in the living room next to Nick sipping my after dinner tea slowly and enjoying its soothing effect. he was doing his online homework on the laptop, when I remembered the phone from earlier in the day. So i asked him where he got hurt and he point at the backside of his head, and that it doesn't hurt any more. I was a bit intrigued how he bumped into a pole and hurt the back side of his head, so asked him how exactly he bumped into the pole.He got up and demonstrated by moving backwards a couple of steps and then hitting an imaginary pole. I immediately identified an opportunity for a lesson and got into the time to teach (TTT) mode. I asked, " So what did you learn?". Nick replied, "Learn when?". Me, "during the PE period". Nick, "in PE we just play, we don't learn anything". I was still too deep into my TTT mode and decided to rephrase my question, "I meant what did you learn from the accident?". Nick responded, "What accident?", and I clarified, "when you bumped your head into the pole". I was very confident that Nick will be wise enough to say " I learned that I should watch where I am going so I don't get hurt". Nick started off, " I learnt that..." and my chest expanded another 2 inches with pride and anticipation of accomplishing my goal, "... that when you bump your head into hard things, it hurts for a while." He continued, " it doesn't hurt any more and i had almost forgotten about it until you reminded me. Can we talk about something else?". And that's when the teacher became the pupil and I realized that a 7 year old taught me to live in the present, and move on from things that don't matter any more, and enjoy life more instead of evaluating everything that happened and deducing conclusions.
We should be grateful for the life we have and move on from the little bumps n life. I am pretty sure Nick will still walk backwards, and did not need a lecture from me to learn that he should be careful while walking backwards and clear out his path before doing that. But the bigger lesson he learned and taught me was that bumps in life hurt a little for a little while and then all will be fine unless you keep thinking about it.
Thank you Nick.....
