Dreams of All Sizes

I wanted to write something really eloquent, really thoughtful about Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. But all my attempts seemed to fall short. There is so much to say about how important his messages are. About how they apply to everyone. About how the world would be a much better place, a more peaceful place, if only the dream would come true.

But, like so many things, I find a child’s point of view puts it best.

Quinn’s preschool class learned about Martin Luther King last Thursday (since they had today off of school in honor of the MLK holiday). He was happy to come home and tell me all about it.

Mom, this guy Martha Luther King says that you should be kind to everyone.

Well, that’s a pretty short synopsis of a lifetime of work, but a fairly decent one: Be nice.

What impressed me even more that day was how it put this into practice. Daddy was off work that day, so in the afternoon while K was napping, Daddy stayed home with her and Q and I headed off to Target to spend his Christmas money from Aunt V. Q chose a set of cars from the movie Cars. There were 8 cars in the set – Lightning McQueen, The King, Chick Hicks, and 5 other Piston Cup racers. On the way home from his big spending spree, Quinn told me he was planning to share the cars with Keira.

She likes cars, too, mom. She loves the King. I’m showing her kindness.

That's great, sweetie, I replied. I'm sure she'll like that.

Yeah. Martha-Marthin-Mar-Tin-Lu-ther King says to be kind to people. (He finds the name a bit of a tongue twister. Can you tell?)

Yes, you're right Quinn. I'm glad you were listening in school today.

Later that afternoon, he was playing with his new cars on the floor in the family room. He was re-enacting a scene from the movie, where the "mean" car, Chick Hicks, runs The King off the track during a big race. In Quinn's version of the scene, though, he changes it up a bit - he has all the other cars rally around McQueen, and McQueen (McQuinn) says this: Hey guys, let's show Chick Hicks some kindness. If we show him how to be kind, maybe he'll know to be kind later and he'll stop being mean to the King.

I would've fallen off my chair at this point, but I was sitting on the floor. I was so proud of his little moment. Usually he claims not to remember anything he did at school that morning. You know how the conversations go...What'd you do at school today? Nothing. Did you play outside? I don't know. Who'd you play with? Everyone. And so it goes....

But this message today. About being kind to everyone. It seemed to be sticking. And I was happy about that.

Then as I was making dinner that night, Quinn walked into the kitchen to see what was going on. He noticed my glass of ice water and asked for a drink. Sure, no problem. Afterward, he said that one of his dreams came true that day. Really? I say, wondering if he was still in an MLK frame of mind. talking about dreams and all.

Yeah, he says, I've always wanted to drink out of a real grown-up glass and now I have.

He puts the glass down and walks away.

Oh. OK. Obviously all dreams aren't created equal. Some are bigger, way bigger, than others. But as parents we owe it to our kids to do all we can to make them come true just the same. The little dreams, and most importantly, the really big ones.

Dream on.