In the midst of the virus pandemonium, I just spent a week with my nine-year-old granddaughter. She had been very disappointed to find her first year at sleep-away camp this summer cancelled, so I stepped in with Grammy Camp which was to be held at our place at a lake.
We started our visit with a trip to the grocery store in which I put her in charge of finding what she would like to eat for our week together. She surprised me by choosing two meats as, she informed me, “protein is very important.” She then moved on the blue cheese crumbles (blue cheese???) followed by the vegetables of her choice and every tropical fruit we could find. I do not think I knew there were such things as mangos when I was nine, nor would they have been found in my local grocery store. Ice cream was on the list, which is considered an eighth food group at my house, but things sort of disintegrated in the chip aisle. There we selected Ruffles and (sounds of trumpets blowing) onion dip which we proceeded to have at every lunch for the entire week. I can only hope her mother is not reading this.
The rest of the week we sunk into a nine-year-old world which was very welcome. We paddled around in the water, we rated funny jumps and cannon balls, we paddle-boarded, we hailed the ice cream boat which came to our dock with Rocket Pops, and I taught her Cribbage after which she promptly beat me soundly. Here are some things we did not do. We did not discuss politics, the virus, the president, Supreme Court decisions, the virus, political divides, the virus, the campaign, the virus, and presidential pardons. Here is what we did discuss: classroom bullies, people who are unkind, what to do when people who used to be your friend no longer want to play with you, why we have to learn things we have no interest in, what rules you have to obey, and what to do if you want to change them.
We both came home refreshed and ready to face this new world that is coming. We both had questions about our lives to come. Will she be able to go to school in the fall? Will my husband and I be able to get on a plane and take a long anticipated vacation this fall? But what really struck me after I got home was the subtle similarity between what we did discuss and what we did not. I am left feeling that I am not sure we have moved much beyond 4th grade as a nation, but I am sure that many of us are not being as thoughtful about the issues as my nine-year-old granddaughter.