Puck Thoughts
I almost thought I’d imagined it at first. But sometime mid-morning back home, it happened. Thunder in October. Not the most common sound, but it was very welcome. Followed by rain that fell in heavy curtains off and on throughout the day.
It was so quiet after carpool that afternoon. The halls were quiet. Puck, Heidi, and Yali sat around just as quietly in Hans’ classroom, spending a little time together before parting ways for the day. Heidi asked me to tell her the story again about the day we adopted Yali, including the part about Yali being comforted by Oxbear’s beard in the middle of the night. That was her favorite part.
Back home, more rain, more thunder.
Puck and I sat down to another long round of homework at the desk in his library. We visited the Roanoke Colony in his textbook first. Puck was fascinated.
“What do you think happened to them, Mom?”
“I have a theory.”
“What is it?”
“I think they left to join an Indian tribe and forgot about their European ways. So they basically adopted themselves into the Indian tribe.”
Puck liked that idea. But he still wanted to know for sure.
“Mom? This is kind of a weird question… but… when you pass away, can you ask God?”
“Sure, buddy. I’ll do that.”
As the thunder increased, Puck continued on to spelling.
“Oooh!” he said, as a boom rattled several miles away. “Thunderstorms just show a little bit of God’s power.” He held two fingers close together. “And God has infinite power.” He thought about that for a second, and then concluded, “So, I guess thunderstorms really show no power.”
Later that evening as I got back to my Spanish program exploring slavery in 1840s Colombia, Puck caught a snatch of the dialogue. Then he got on a little soapbox.
“People who think you can own people – that is the stupidest thing in the world, Mom. Just because they have different color skin, they think they have more power over them. It’s like… if you poured paint on yourself and you were a different color. And then you’re like, ‘Now you’re lower power than me!’”