There’s a 2×4 board in our basement. That in itself is rather unremarkable, there’s lots of 2×4’s in our basement but this one runs vertically from the floor to the ceiling, and although I’m no expert at construction this one seems pretty important. It’s part of the support structure for the stairs, but that’s not the only reason I think it’s pretty important. This 2×4 has a series of lines and numbers on it starting about a third of the way up. You see this is the 2×4 that I would back my son up to and tell him to stand straight and tall, then I’d put a ruler on the top of his head and draw a line. He’d step back from this board and then we’d measure it to the floor…this 2×4 and the lines and numbers on it represents his growth chart.
The first date on the board is January 30, 2008. We moved into this house in April of 2007 and if I would have been smart I would have measured him the day we moved in, or maybe on his birthday in August or a specific day every year like New Years Day, but for some reason January 30 is the first date. Looking up that date, it shows that it was a Wednesday, and not much really happened on that day. It was probably a cold winter day in Michigan and we were probably in the basement playing after dinner. He would have been 6 years old then, still small enough to ride his little bike in the basement. He’d go down there and just ride around doing laps for about an hour. As a parent is there anything better than an activity that keeps your kid busy for an hour and it tires him out? Or we might have been playing floor hockey with mini floor hockey sticks and some makeshift nets and a ball. Some time during the evening I must have had the idea to measure him. The numbers next to the line say 3′ 10″. Looking at it now it comes just past my belly button. He was still small enough to pick up and carry around, small enough to hug and kiss whenever you wanted, small enough to still wrestle around with for fun.
It would be a year and half later before I measured him again, July 16, 2009 and the numbers next to it say 4′ 2″. A little bit bigger but certainly no big growth spurt yet. I sit here wondering why were we in the basement on a summers evening in July. Perhaps a summer thunderstorm blew in and chased us inside for the rest of the night. During that time we had a cat who lived in the basement, mainly because our dog would chase her to the basement whenever she tried to come upstairs. She would usually be sitting in her box on the shelf watching over us, she had learned the hard way to stay away from the small child on the bike or throwing the ball around. If there was a thunderstorm she would make herself even scarcer, hiding behind boxes until it was over. She passed away last year but sometimes I still expect to see her down there in her box on the shelf.
The lines and numbers continue February 16, 2011….February 8, 2012, wow almost exactly a year apart, good job by me, and then March 3, 2013. He had grown to 4′ 11″ and then just 5 months later another line and he crossed the 5 ft. barrier.
Then a curious thing happened, there are no lines and numbers for the next 4 years. Not until July 12, 2017 and by now he’s 5′ 11″, the same height as me. I sit here trying to recollect why didn’t I measure him during that time period and I honestly don’t know why. Four years, that’s a long time. He went from being 11 years old to being a teenager, that had long since past his mom’s height. The years just seemed to pass, he went from the little kid riding his bike in the basement to the kid playing lacrosse, going to friends bonfires, and talking about high school. It was all just a blur and the lack of lines on the 2×4 seem to represent that.
He had his 16th birthday last month, he’s up over 6 ft. tall with long curly hair. The little kid with the buzz cut who’s shorter than me is only seen in pictures now. He passed drivers education and went and got his license. He’s got my old car, and I bought a new one. He runs cross country on the high school team and he’s able to drive himself back and forth to practice On weekends he goes over to a friends house for team bonfires and as he goes down the driveway I stand looking out the window. He pauses at the end of the driveway, he puts his turn signal on, I wonder how long that’ll last. I picture him looking left, then right and then left again like I taught him, and then slowly pulling out onto our road. As he disappears down the road with his newfound sense of freedom, I can’t help but think…I hope he follows his dreams and has no regrets.
Thought for the day….
Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today….
Hemingway
John's Blog 