This week, well, one day this week that is, my offspring
needed to miss a morning of school for a very important appointment. An
appointment I am not at liberty to discuss but one that I am both proud and
envious of at the same time. Also, I’m not at liberty to discuss here on an
open forum. Regardless, I saw no fault or issue with her reason to miss half a
day of high school.
She knew
that when she made this appointment that she would have to come to work with me
and I leave for work around six in the morning. Which means she would have to
get up by 5:30. A time most sixteen year olds have no idea or concept of.
However; my child is a bit different, she has no problem getting up before the
sun and getting ready to face the day. That is, as long as it is a weekday and
not in the summer time.
By 6:15 we
had arrived at my work and she readily agreed to follow me and help out with
the set up and checking of each and every exhibit in the museum. The first
stop, well, my first stop, is always the bubble room. Simply because it
requires no electricity and I don’t have to turn everything on to get this room
prepared for a day of small children and their escorts.
As I went
about the set-up of the room, filling the bubble tables, the step-in a bubbles
and the stretch a bubble table, she took all the bubble wands and tubes and
placed them in their respective places. I began to make bubble solution, a task
that is done at least once a day. We even have a special closet in which to perform
this task.
As the
water filled the bucket in which we make the bubble solution the sound from the
bubble room was drowned out by the sound of the water. So I turned and poked my
head out the door to check on my daughter. She was standing by the bubble
table, in one hand a bubble tube and she was blowing through it. A large bubble
appeared at the end of the tube and she pulled it away from her face. She held
it out in front of her at arm’s length and a large, innocent and joyful smile
filled her face and eyes. She set the tube down and picked up a wand and began
to wave it in the air, soon the air around her head and body were surrounded by
floating, viscous orbs and the stark, florescent lights from above cast beams
in the air around her. Her impossible smile grew even larger and she began to
twirl inside the safety of the fragile, floating orbs. She was completely
oblivious to my actions of watching her and the joy she was bringing me.
That moment
sent my mind spinning back in time. To a time almost ten years ago, a time when
the museum was kicking off its Capital Campaign for fund raising to upgrade the
museum and its exhibits.
Part of the
Capital Campaign was to film a video of children enjoying the museum and its
exhibits. The initial video ran ten minutes and parts of it was used to build a
thirty second commercial. I was asked if my daughter would be interested in
being one of the children. I knew she wouldn’t mind and I quickly accepted the
offer on her behalf. When I got home that night, I asked her and she did not
disappoint me.
When the
day of filming came, she was eager, excited and ready to do whatever was asked.
The crew doing the filming even made sure there were plenty of snacks for the
kids to enjoy during their down time between takes. I was working that day and
my daughter had been a staple in the museum for so long that she was perfectly
comfortable to not have my full attention or the attention of other people as
she went about her day of play and filming.
Weeks,
maybe months later, when the final cut had been fully edited and approved, I
was handed a dvd with the full ten minute fund raising video as well as the
thirty second clip for television. I quickly took the disc to my office,
plugged it into the machine and sat down to watch it and take joy in the fact
that my child was on the television.
I sat in my
chair, on the edge of my chair, my elbows on my knees and my eyes glued to the
monitor so I wouldn’t miss a millisecond of my lovely kid on full digital, high
quality film. I was disappointed. After nine minutes and thirty seconds I had
seen every other kid who had been signed up to be in the video and not even a
fraction of a second of air time for my child. I was getting ready to just
eject the dvd and toss it in the trashcan when the bubble room footage appeared
on screen.
I saw
several children from the video front and center on the screen, yet in the
background, I saw a small, almost frail looking blonde headed girl with a short
page-boy haircut. My daughter. Finally! She was standing at one of the old
bubble tables playing with a bubble wand. A large smile adorned her cherubic
face. I felt pride swell in me. I didn’t care she wasn’t front and center, I
didn’t care she hadn’t been in the rest of the film, I was just happy to see
her in the background. Then the scene cut sharply and my daughters face filled
the screen. In her hand, a bubble tube and she was blowing gently into it. A
large bubble grew at the end of the tube and finally released itself into the
air in front of her face. Her eyes grew wide and gently she reached out with
her hand, closed all of her fingers except her pointer finger and she touched
the bubble. It immediately popped and her smile was replaced with a look of
pure, unadulterated joy and fascination. The video froze and did a slow fade
out on my daughters face.
I was
elated and exhausted. I slumped back in my chair and felt nothing but pride for
my progeny.
Then the
thirty second tv spot started. No surprise, my daughter was not featured in
almost any of the film. Except at the end. Where she pops the bubble. The
commercial closed on her just as it had in the ten minute spot. I couldn’t have
been happier.
I must have
watched the video a dozen times that day. Each time it ended, I felt the
swelling of pride and joy.
So, ten
years later, after so many heartbreaks, disappointments and growing pains in
her life, to be given a chance to observe the untainted, unabashed and sheer
joy of childhood fill her again and see the wonderment and amazement that water
and soap concentrate can still bring into her life makes me feel like I may
have done something right in my life. As if all the hard work, the missed
performances, the endless aches and pains I put myself through in order for her
to have a better and more secure life has been worth all those regrettable
moments of failure I feel almost every day.
Yes, she
has kept a sense of wonderment, yes, she still finds happiness in the little
things in life, yes, she still dances and twirls when she thinks no one is
watching, and most importantly, yes, she is still the greatest source of joy in
my life and everything I have to suffer and endure has been worth it.
As an
epilogue, I was busted. She saw me at the end of one of her twirls. She stopped
and looked me right in the eyes, he smile never faded as she waved at me from
behind the floating bubbles that seemed to be orbiting the being that has been
the center of my life for sixteen years.
Have a
great week. And if you have kids, go give them a great big hug.
😢😍
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