And how I re-learnt some life lessons that all kids should have known all along.
Saturday was another great, warm, sunny and calm morning. Which could only lead to one thing … books, umbrella, towels, salsa, guacamole and sunscreen lotion. On, and the sand, surf and water, of course.
An hour into the outing, I decide I was going to give the kids around us a run for their money and make better sand castles than they could.
So I ran back to the apartment, borrowed our neighbours’ kid’s plastic spade, bucket, die-cast blocks and got to work.
Now, everyone knows, any sand castle has to begin with a secret entrance in the shape of a tunnel. Of course, if you can get three of them working, inter-connected, that much the better. Surabhi chipped in and made the most amazing castle wall, with turrets, a moat (my second favorite idea) and a secondary wall (c’mon people, backups!!!)
We toiled in the sun for about 3 hours, making all kinds of cool (and completely unrelated) shapes that resulted in the largest wall and smallest castle. But I had this cool tunnel system that did not collapse!
Finally, at the end of the day, as I sat watching the waves slowly erode away, first the outerwall and then breach the inner wall, I got a sense of what Tolkien wanted us to feel when Helm’s Deep was overrun.
Still, the lesson at the end of the day was simple. Just because what you made isn’t permanent, it shouldn’t be the reason to not make it.
Here’s to more startups from Surabhi and I.
16 Apr 2007 at 11:25 am
that is a great lesson learn indeed. perhaps you should pass the wisdom along the white house. i hear they need it!
16 Apr 2007 at 11:42 am
Umm, I don’t know about that. Politics isn’t my thing … I’d rather pass along this lesson to younger students who can someday actually do something productive with it.