taking a walk

One of the great things about my kid is that he can always be counted on to have a completely different set of concerns and theories from everyone else I know. I'm not entirely sure what he "should" be thinking about, at four and a half, but he often asks me to go for a walk and we always find ourselves on interesting and amusing ground as we amble and chat.

This afternoon, as we left the house and headed north up our street, he said "Let's go to China and visit Kai-Lan." He was referring to a show he watches at daycare, a very hip-looking cartoon that teaches kids a little Chinese language and culture as well as all the standard behavioral lessons. We talked about how far away China lays, and in a few minutes he said "We can go to Radiator Springs. That's far away too, though." This time a fictional town in the desert, from the movie "Cars;" though in fact it's the American West in this case and the kid and I have already spent some time with a map tracing Route 66 through the real countryside. As we discussed the relative proximity of real places and pretend places, he casually threw in that "we shouldn't go to North Minneapolis though. We can't go there."

This really stopped me in my tracks, since it's a sentiment he probably did not hear around the house -- at least not as a serious travel restriction, though my husband and I discuss the news periodically and I suppose it's possible the kid has discerned some opinions of his own from all that. If not, I wonder where he picked it up -- he didn't seem to have a ready source for the quote when I asked, nor a reason to avoid that part of town. Something to listen for down the road.

The rest of our walk concerned itself with the potential for finding earthworms, the puddles on the baseball field, the way fallen husks from tree blossoms look a little like stink bugs, and other manifestations of the natural world. The weather was mild, and the walk really enjoyable. I'm glad we have time to take these walks regularly -- his attention span has really caught up with his aptitude, and I enjoy letting him choose our path and our subject matter. It's a relief on many levels just to converse with him.