Change for the better
It's interesting, as a once 'musically hip' parent, to watch my child's music tastes develop. To see what songs they're attracted to. To see what kind of hipness they'll inheret just because they grew up listening to Pavement, Modest Mouse, Neil Young, Dinosaur Jr., etc. Of course, it always ends up somewhat a disappointment. Just like I'm sure I disappointed my parents when I rejected the Captain and Tennille in favor of Pink Floyd and Led Zepplin. So when Ender first started taking a liking to Smash Mouth's 'All Star', or "Hey Now" as he called it, I figured it could have been worse.
I really am not a fan of Smash Mouth, but when Ender at age 6 was dancing around in excitement listening to it, I couldn't help but get a second hand joy out of it. The same can't be said about his latest favorite 'My Immortal' by the latest gimmick band that crosses the talentless crap rock band with an opera singer. One of the redeeming qualities about Smash Mouth is their almost clever lyrics. The line I like the most from 'All Star' is "I could use a little fuel myself, and we could all use a little change."
I liked this line because I thought it was a good lesson to my son. Keep your energy high and don't be afraid of change. I thought for sure that after years of listening to this song over and over (and over and over), this message would imprinted itself on the deepest part of his personality. I will admit now that I was wrong. In fact, it seemed to have an opposite affect. When Smash Mouth's scruffy singer scratched out the lyrics "we could all use a little change", Ender took it literally and started what would become a massive collection of 3846 pennies.
Ender had more or less run out of room for his change quite a while ago. So when the nearby Food City installed a machine that changes your change into dollars, we decided it was finally time for a change of the change. "I can't carry the big jar dad", Ender said to me. Silly, you just need a little fuel. A little inspiration. Don't think you can't do it, know you can. Wax on, wax off. And he did it. Carried that sucker to the car. Then, hernia pending, he lugged it into the grocery store.
Out of order.
"Well, at least we know we can do it here once its fixed.", Ender says sadly. No son, all we need is a little fuel for ourselves (and the jeep) and we'll change this change in no time. After a lot of running around in various stores nearby, we find another change machine. By now, I think I'm carrying all the change jars. One might wonder why we didn't just leave the jars in the car until we found the machine, but one wasn't with us and we were on a mission!
Wow, talk about boring. Exchanging change sure isn't exciting. Especially when you have 3864 pennies. Thats O.K. though, the downtime gave us a chance to have some father son moments. "I'm kind of sad.", Ender says. Sad? Sad? How could he be sad? He's about to get $38.64 minus 8.9 cents per dollar. Is he sad about the 8.9 cents? Maybe I can compensate him for it. No, he needs to learn that services such as these will cost him. Wait. Maybe I should ask.
"What are you sad about?"
"Well, I've been collecting these since I was like, 3."
"I said 6 earlier in this post, are you sure it was 3?"
"Maybe 5. For a long time though."
I realize then that this is one of those points where I should impress upon him the importance of accepting change and not letting your possessions own you, yadda yadda. There, surrounded by strangers buying toilet paper and that peanut butter and jelly mixed together stuff, we had a moment. An in depth talk about not letting your possessions define you. Everything I thought Smashmouth was supposed to be teaching my child for me.
I really am not a fan of Smash Mouth, but when Ender at age 6 was dancing around in excitement listening to it, I couldn't help but get a second hand joy out of it. The same can't be said about his latest favorite 'My Immortal' by the latest gimmick band that crosses the talentless crap rock band with an opera singer. One of the redeeming qualities about Smash Mouth is their almost clever lyrics. The line I like the most from 'All Star' is "I could use a little fuel myself, and we could all use a little change."
I liked this line because I thought it was a good lesson to my son. Keep your energy high and don't be afraid of change. I thought for sure that after years of listening to this song over and over (and over and over), this message would imprinted itself on the deepest part of his personality. I will admit now that I was wrong. In fact, it seemed to have an opposite affect. When Smash Mouth's scruffy singer scratched out the lyrics "we could all use a little change", Ender took it literally and started what would become a massive collection of 3846 pennies.
Ender had more or less run out of room for his change quite a while ago. So when the nearby Food City installed a machine that changes your change into dollars, we decided it was finally time for a change of the change. "I can't carry the big jar dad", Ender said to me. Silly, you just need a little fuel. A little inspiration. Don't think you can't do it, know you can. Wax on, wax off. And he did it. Carried that sucker to the car. Then, hernia pending, he lugged it into the grocery store.
Out of order.
"Well, at least we know we can do it here once its fixed.", Ender says sadly. No son, all we need is a little fuel for ourselves (and the jeep) and we'll change this change in no time. After a lot of running around in various stores nearby, we find another change machine. By now, I think I'm carrying all the change jars. One might wonder why we didn't just leave the jars in the car until we found the machine, but one wasn't with us and we were on a mission!
Wow, talk about boring. Exchanging change sure isn't exciting. Especially when you have 3864 pennies. Thats O.K. though, the downtime gave us a chance to have some father son moments. "I'm kind of sad.", Ender says. Sad? Sad? How could he be sad? He's about to get $38.64 minus 8.9 cents per dollar. Is he sad about the 8.9 cents? Maybe I can compensate him for it. No, he needs to learn that services such as these will cost him. Wait. Maybe I should ask.
"What are you sad about?"
"Well, I've been collecting these since I was like, 3."
"I said 6 earlier in this post, are you sure it was 3?"
"Maybe 5. For a long time though."
I realize then that this is one of those points where I should impress upon him the importance of accepting change and not letting your possessions own you, yadda yadda. There, surrounded by strangers buying toilet paper and that peanut butter and jelly mixed together stuff, we had a moment. An in depth talk about not letting your possessions define you. Everything I thought Smashmouth was supposed to be teaching my child for me.
