My oldest daughter, exploring science through technology, telling me facts about the cells of plants that I didn’t know – facts she discovered on her own, because she wanted to, outside of any structured or formal learning. No reward or punishment. Just exploring and sharing.
My middle child, laughing with hysteric delight as I pour a huge box of stuffed animals out onto her head – a box that is her “space ship,” her defeating the “aliens” and then rushing to hug me before we move on to more and more games, games which she plays so well and with such imagination.
My son, just now in that wonderous waterfall stage of language where new words and phrases come by the dozen each day, mastering the phrase “I love you,” and saying it to me at every opportunity just because he delights in the look on my face when I hear it, and embrace him.
There is breath in me yet, and things worth defending. That is enough.
The Opportunity Machine 