The Foot and the Guitar

There are certain situations in life to which we tend to quickly react rather than to act in a rational manner. Last week we had occasion to witness an example of this between our two elder munchkins. The day was promising, with the creative young minds of Emily and Benjamin ripe for discovery, eager to unearth a long-lost Christmas present of Emily's from years past: A real guitar. She'd wanted it so badly that year, but after a few cacophonous strums, she gave it up, zipped it away in its case, slid it under her bed, and there it was forgotten.....until now. The excitement was so thick you could cut it with a knife as Emily unzipped the guitar, only, she wasn't safely seated on the carpet, she was standing in the kitchen. The rest seemed to move in slow motion: The guitar slipped from the nylon case, cascaded through groping fingers, and collided with the top-center of Emily's unsuspecting foot. It wasn't the smooth wood of the guitar that did the damage but the hard plastic tuning knobs at the top. Tsk.

Emily's reaction? After hollering and hopping, pushing her way to me, she settled down enough for a hasty business transaction: She sold the instrument to her delighted brother for the bargain price of $4. Now, our Benj is a saver by nature, but he knew he would've been a fool not to take advantage of this wise business opportunity. And he sure is enjoying the fruits of instrument ownership. He's got it all tuned, polished, and who knows--maybe someday we'll get him guitar lessons. If he can keep it from finding its way to dusty death, under his bed.

See below for a preview of our future rock star.......