Persistence

”An invincible determination can accomplish almost anything and in this lies the great distinction between great men and little men.” --Thomas Fuller

My son Daan is a very small person. He is no longer beneath the growth charts in size, as you know, but he still makes the mommies of the two year olds on the playground nervous. Because he is exactly their size, you see, or sometimes smaller, but has the coordination of a three year old. The dads occasionally sidle up to me and ask my how long he has been able to do >that<. I generally say something soothing like, "Since he turned three, maybe a couple months after,". Sometimes I consider saying, "Oh, I guess about a year or so," but I usually do not. I only think about it; I find I grow kinder as I grow older.

However, Daan wants to do everything his brother can do. This is of course impossible, two years is a large gap at this age. But no one has shared this with him. So he just sets out to do it. And if he is not prevented due to his mother's concern for life and limb, it is astonishing how often he manages to pull it off.

Today at the playground, Daan decided he wanted to go on the big kids' climbing structure and slide. This thing is two stories high. It is essentially a metal cage shaped like a house, and you can either climb up the outside on climbing nets or the inside on ladders. The ladders are inside square enclosed tunnels which look like air conditioning shafts and the exits are on the side. So you have to climb the ladder and then transfer sideways out the door. Daan declared his intention to do it. I told him he should go on the other slide instead. So he went to the ladder and Looked At Me.

Okay, I said. (Secretly thanking all the saints that it was not the climbing net on the outside). But I am not going to help you. Not at all. If you can't do it, we go to the other one. He started climbing. I climbed after him.

At the first story he climbed directly out of the hole in the floor, stood up, put his hands over his head like a boxer and danced around. No, he has never seen Rocky, and he has never done that before. I have no idea where he got that. The Collective Unconscious I suppose.

He went to the second ladder. At the top, he sort of turned around and Looked again. Nope, I said. If you can't do it, we are going to the other slide. (Please don't let him be able to do it, saints, I thought).

He did it. He is too small to do it. But he did it. It took forever. I was glad I was there, because I at least held off the other kids who were coming up the ladder and routinely just climb over the smaller, slower kids. Including his brother, by the way, before anybody starts speculating on the childrens' behavior or parentage. But even the big boys know better than to pull that with Somebody's Mom on the ladder.

He stood on the top rung and put his elbow over the floor to his right. Then he put his weight on the elbow and brought his other hand around to grab the floor. (The floor is made of gridwork, you can see right through it. It was probably really scary for those unfortunate souls with a fear of heights of whom I do not know even one) Then he dragged himself off the ladder with his hands. He is too small to keep his feet on the ladder, it's just too far. Then he stood up and said "you can come on now," to me and went to the slide.

So it's a very fast slide, and two stories high. Polished metal in a tunnel. He was scared to death. But he did it agin. Twice. The second time, I had to stay on the gound and he did it really himself. But he went with Douwe on the slide. The third time he got all the way to the top and stopped. "You have to slide down, Daan, you cannot climb down," I said. "It's scary, though," He said. "Do I need to come get you?" I said. He considered the matter with great seriousness and said "Yes, I think so,".

So I did. And he went off to play in the sand.