The Planet's Least Stressful Place

My cousin Madeleine recently visited my branch of the family on the East Coast. When I say "branch", I mean from a towering family tree, our parents were adjacent brother and sister in a line of 16 siblings. She is 14, which provided Wifey and I a remarkable window into what is to come. When your child is 3 years old, they only have as much control as you give them. Admittedly, in American culture even the strictest parents cede much of their authority to their children, but it's a voluntary transfer of power at that age. A teenager has valid thoughts and ideas of their own. They may be right, they may be wrong, but they're not going to be persuaded by blunt authority. Fear not, there were no conflicts in the I Tell You What household during my cousin's visit, but I was startled by how much more of a peer relationship the parent/child dynamic has become at that age versus when the child hasn't even entered school yet. In case you're still wondering, she's pretty smart.

One of the week's high points was to head to the local zoo. I love that place, the children are a convenient excuse for me to go stare at exotic animals and read every last word on the exhibit plaques. The icing on the cake was an enclosed butterfly garden. It was well worth the few extra bucks for admission to that. I am scarcely poetic enough to do the scene justice, but the comic laureate Brian Regan explains it well. Anyway, closely examine a sample of the photos below, and feel your blood pressure slowly drop as you drift into a state of drowsy contentment. If we could have locked Osama bin Laden, Dick Cheney, Saddam Hussein, and the entire Board of Directors from Weyland-Yutani, into this blissful place for a day, the world we live in would be a more serene place.