Friday, July 22, 2011

When The Older Siblings Are Away


My parents graciously took Emma (17) and Eli (13) to Ames, Iowa to tour Iowa State University. Next year at this time, Emma will actually be going to some university, Lord willing, we just don't know where quite yet.

Gracie was never planning to go to Iowa since she just got home from a camp. Levi was planning to go until we were able to talk him out of the 4.5 hour car ride, the campus tour and the multiple interviews with admissions staff and professors. He would have gone; we were just afraid he and then everyone else, would have been sort of miserable.

Joel took over the Rescue Of Levi Mission. Something for which I am very, very grateful. Not because I could not have thought of anything to do with him, but because I could have thought for millions and millions of years about what to do and would have still not come up with this:


This is the far right corner of the box of Levi's new BB gun. A Remington Pump Action BB Gun. A Remington Pump Action BB Gun that has completely ignored all of us mothers all over the world who have allowed a son to own a BB gun with the strict, nonbending, unbreakable rule that no live thing will ever be shot with it.

Levi seems more manly already. No dead squirrels are in our yard. And maybe my friend with a "Bat Emergency" would give him his first job, if she didn't care about her roof or siding.

3 comments:

  1. it appears you can shoot squirrels, birds AND rainbows. i like. and i approve. a healthy amount of danger is good for a little boy :)

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  2. You're right. Hadn't even noticed the sweet rainbow prey. That's what we'll have for breakfast.

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  3. I sat on a towel the first week I returned to 4th grade, as the German Shepherd wounds drained. The last box of greeting cards having been sold, my only companion was the sweet accomplishment of earning the lever-action (only rumors of "pump action" in 1957) Daisy Red Ryder BB gun. Not until then did my mother grasp my unrelenting determination to shoot.

    Birds and (at 755 ft./second)other small creatures will continue to die. Man's (young) impact on the earth. One morning before anyone else was awake and by now an expert marksman, I nailed a mouse as it paused on the curtain rod over the living room window. Not much blood got on the couch. That's when the Not Inside The House rule came.

    Levi will be fine. Nature's balance will endure.

    I still support universal gun control with simple possession a capital offense.

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