Beautiful Monster

One day this week, a small boy who will remain un-named drove his mother to the brink of a complete breakdown with his mischief. Sometimes small boys do that, even though their mothers love them. As the mother wearily followed her small boy home from the park, praying all his running around had worn him out for a nap (it had not) an old woman (76, to be exact) ended up walking on the sidewalk beside her. For two blocks the old woman just laughed and repeated “what a dream” he was. The mother smiled politely and fought back a weird mix of frustrated and guilty tears. And then she excused herself to catch the small boy as he stepped off the sidewalk and into the street in pursuit of a delivery truck.

A few hours later, the mother found herself AGAIN on the sidewalk, following the small boy back and forth in hopes that he would peacefully entertain himself for thirty minutes without any tantrums or chasing a bus into traffic (he did not). It took her a few minutes to realize that someone was trying to get her attention – “hey miss, excuse me, miss” – and she looked up and saw a group of construction workers leaned up against a pick-up truck. She wasn’t feeling very chatty, but politely (and warily) said, “yes?” The man said, “Have you ever heard the song Beautiful Boy by John Lennon?” She shook her head. He nodded toward the small boy and said, “Look it up when you get home.” She was a bit thrown off but sputtered, “Oh-okay” and then took off running to stop the small boy on his mission to catch a garbage truck.