Filed under: Family | Tags: Alice in Wonderland, family, imagine, impossible, kids
“Sometimes I have believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast,” Lewis Carroll from Alice in Wonderland
I have always loved Alice in Wonderland; the zany and mad tale of a girl lost in a land that revels in the absurd. I, for one, think the absurd is far too underrated and often amuse myself by thinking of absurd things all day long. For example, when my daughter made the rule that we must dress as our favorite princess for Halloween I reveled in the idea of putting my six foot four husband in a sparkly blue Cinderella dress. (I still maintain that he would look fantastic; blue is his color after all.) I have a month to make it happen.
This got me to thinking though, what impossible things could I believe before breakfast? Or better yet, what impossible things do I wish I could do? Here is my list:
- I would invent and utilize the morning machine as seen on the Jetsons. You know the one; simply hop on the conveyor belt on one end and arrive on the other dressed and ready with a cup of hot coffee in hand. It would make mornings in my house a much more pleasant experience.
I wish it were this easy.
- I would have a chat with my great-grandpa Pop O’Brien; my dad’s grandfather. He died when I was little and the stories I have heard about him over the years has elevated him to superhero status in my mind. An Irish immigrant, he came over at a time when the Irish weren’t very popular and managed to raise some of the coolest people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. (Including my saucy and fun grandma.) I wonder sometimes, though, what it would be like to talk to him as an adult. To get a true sense of who he was outside of the myth.
- To that end, I would also have a chat with my Great Grandma “Happy”; who died the year I was born. How cool is the nickname Grandma Happy? Although later I learned she was named after the dog… a little less cool now that I think about it. I know she too would have amazing stories to tell me, as a Mexican immigrant in a small town. Her husband left her soon after they immigrated, with thirteen children and not even a basic understanding of the English language. I would like to thank her for raising an amazing woman in my grandmother; who has taught me everything I know about hard work and determination. (Basically, she is the person who taught me how to be a stubborn steam-roller. Blame her.) Really, there are so many in my family that have come and gone that I would like to talk to as an adult. My grandpa Elmer Everett, or Mac as everyone called him; what would he have thought of my kids? I think he would have appreciated his little namesake, Madison Everett; the one who thinks we all need to dress as princesses. These are the people that have shaped our family and in turn made me… well me.
It looks like Grandpa Mac liked the absurd too, at least I hope that is what this picture is about.
- For this impossible coffee talk with my ancestors I would invent a magical chocolate chip cookie that tastes fantastic, clears up your skin and helps you lose weight (and does not involve ex-lax as an ingredient.) If I am going to dream the impossible I may as well dream big.
- I would find a magic bottle (labeled drink me of course) that would keep my babies young, happy and healthy. Then I would need a tea cake (this one labeled eat me, duh) that would help me raise well adjusted, smart and successful adults. Between the two we could revel in the best that life has to offer; the joys of being a young parent with the satisfaction of seeing your kids grow up with none of the messy heartache in between.
- Oh, and I would solve that whole world peace thing too. I mean dream big or not at all.
It dawns on me now; I think I can believe these impossible things. Well maybe not the Jetson machine or the magic cookies. But I can meet my great-grandparent through conversations with the family I have now. I can learn about them through the stories that I wasn’t quite old enough to hear as a little kid, I only have to ask. I can freeze time for my kids by writing down all of these little stories and antics now so I can share with them as they grow older. This idea seems all the more poignant this morning as learned that my dear friend has lost her grandmother last night. I can believe in at least three impossible things before breakfast, I simply must take the time to do so. Because time, as my friend can attest, runs out before you know it.
So the time has come, as I must say, to talk of many things. Not shoes and ships and sealing wax, but family and kids, fiction and facts… and because we are Irish, cabbages and kings.
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a life just ordinary 