Tonight at dinner, Caleb thumped a water glass down next to his plate.
“I got this myself,” he announced proudly.
“That’s good,” I said, wondering when dinner for my children would encompass more than noodles.
“When I do things all myself, it means I’m self-deficient.”
Hmm.
This is a koan.
If your readers had seen Caleb hurtling himself repeatedly into the pool at Islamorada, bravely swimming (sort of)/flailing upright with his pursed lips barely above the water line, they’d know he isn’t deficient in much of anything!
it IS a koan…and also a phrase that I think will become adjectival for me, on those days when it all just feels like too much…those days when the classroom limps along, I can say “gosh, I feel self-deficient today…”