Greetings from Funland in Rehoboth Beach. Simon and Becky are off riding Simon-sized rides, and Finn is on the Gravitron, that crazy spaceship thing that spins you so fast that the floor falls out and the teenaged boys turn themselves upside down on the walls, which gives me a bit of time here.
I could ride the Gravitron, I have a couple of times, but, man, I just don’t enjoy it. It’s Finn’s favorite, but ten year old boys haven’t had enough bad stuff happen to and in their heads to mind having them feel like they’ve been squeezed like oranges.
Besides, I’m cool to hang out, catch up a bit with you, and watch all these families enjoy their lives.
It’s a strong family dynamic, and it seems as if just about every social demographic is represented here. The beautiful thing about this isn’t how the families are different, however, but how they are similar.
The mothers and fathers are all pleased and appreciative when the toddler who has fallen asleep on a shoulder or in a stroller inspires comments about how cute or precious–how very dear–the child is; the teenagers are trying to stay off the radar of parents who are so entirely dorky that they use words like “dorky”; elementary school aged children pray to God that if He sees them through the end of a ride alive, they’ll never get on it again–but as they head to the exit they realize it wasn’t all that bad and that they might ride it again; and everybody says something along the lines of “aarrgh” when the skill crane drops the prize they were just certain was going to be theirs or when the bell dings to signal that someone else sprayed enough water into a clown’s mouth before they did.
Some of these people remind us of whom we have been, while others prepare us for who we will become, a study of life at its finest.
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