"I saw the boat falling off the edge"

I'll send my "baby" off to Kindergarten in August.  Okay, he's not a baby. He's ten.  But for the first time next year as a fifth grader, he won't be in the same building as me.  Good for his healthy social development, bad for me.

He's a smart boy.  He was an only child and only grandchild for six years until his diva-like younger sister (who he affectionately dubbed "the pink menace" when she was two) came along.  Consequently, he had lots of one-on-one time around interesting adults.  He comes up with some great one-liners now and then.  When I can tear him away from Ro-Blox and his ipod, I love to quiz him while listening to Pandora about who sings what.  He's mastered recognizing Carole King, The Beatles, Coldplay, and Pearl Jam.  We're working on James Taylor, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, and a few others. 

He's an observant kid with a special kind of ten-year-old wisdom.  So, while I was quizzing him on who sings 19th Nervous Breakdown in the car on the way to summer school this morning, he randomly told me "The world is flat, mom,"  I looked at him inquisitively because I figured he must have been stewing about something.  "What do you mean?" I asked.  "You know, flat," he said as he motioned with his hands pointing at the horizon.  Okay, I overshot a little.  He was referring to the appearance that the world seems flat from our perspective, not to a Friedman-like analogy about the leveling of learning and economic opportunities around the world. 

I told him I had a book by that same title and he said, "I know.  I saw the boat falling off the edge."  Like I said before, summer is the time for reflection so he said this and "Bingo!"...my brain immediately started thinking about that analogy.  My August-anxiety started building officially today, June 29.  Darn.

There are many times in the upcoming school year when we'll very much feel like the boat is going off the edge of the world.  But it's not.  There may be times when we're not certain that we have the ability to figure out the next steps to keep moving forward.  But we do.  How do we build in opportunities throughout the year to take a step back and realize that we're not helpless when it feels like the boat's going down?  How do we stay the course in turbulent times when the path isn't as clear as we would like? 

So my boy's comment today didn't reflect a deep understanding about the current state of the world and how it's changed but, um, you know, he's ten.  It did, though, cause me to think a little bit about the weight of the flat world on our shoulders and our collective ability to keep the ship from falling off the edge.  It takes the whole team to guide the ship.  It takes everyone's strengths.  Read what Stephen Covey has to say about being "just a trim tab" (The Eighth Habit, Chapter 7). My job is connecting and encouraging people, staying calm in rough waters, and keeping the vision visible.  Doing this allows us to focus more on mission than survival. 

My goodness.  Just like his mother, my young son has so much to learn.  Which to tackle first?  Scientific misconceptions about the shape of Earth or Jumpin' Jack Flash.  I'm going with Mick and Keith.  Some things shouldn't wait.