Angelthingee

"Whatchagotthere?"  I asked of Z as he went walking by with a rolled up piece of paper in his hand.

"This" was his earnest response:

"Uh, little dude," (I call them 'little dude' sometimes) "What exactly is it?"


"Oh, it's one of those angelthingees.?"  He answered, using his patented single-arched-eyebrow move.  "You know, that one from that book..."

No, I have to admit, I do not know what he is talking about.  What book?  I mean she looks like some Viking goddess saint rising up over Valhalla to direct our prayers to Mary, I think.  Is that a breast plate she's sporting there?  Are her wings on upside down?  And why are her arms so large and, well, furry-looking?  Is she wearing a tunic?


I don't think I'd put so much thought into it if he hadn't seemed to think I should know what he was talking about.  I was at a party last night and one of my old college buddies said that he no longer used nouns because he can't seem to remember them anymore, an affliction I seem to be suffering from as well.  He said he grunts and points or uses those 'watchamacallit' words we all spew out assuming everyone else will simply fill in the word we are no longer capable of remembering.


With these guys, they often don't know what the actual word is, or, on a deeper level, what the thing they are feeling is called.  I feel sorry for them sometimes; feeling jealousy and not knowing  what it is, or sadness, or betrayal, or any of those complex emotions we deal with so often with such casualness.  Sometimes it helps me to remember that the complications of life are not so bad sometimes because I know what they are all called.


You know what's funny?  I know a lot of very smart and clever people and one of them is going to tell me exactly what the 'angelthingee' is and I know I'll say, "Oh, that one from that book!"




From Marci's '...things you don't expect to hear from the backseat...'

(After Bill taught them how to peel a Cutie tangerine)

"Daddy, show us something else."
"Like what?"
"Everything!  We need to learn this stuff!"


Yeah, I might be busy for a few years here...