Child's Play
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Yesterday Ruby came to play. She's almost three, and from her tiny perch upon the world she sees most everything. The bees building their hive in the high canopy above our heads. The black bird in the white scorch of plane plumes. The crack in the spinning wheel's last spoke. She thinks it's funny that I can't draw, so she makes me draw. She steals the soccer ball into the net, despite my best efforts to thwart. She waits until the music is loud, fast, and sure, then dances.
She forgives my hair, for never staying as prettily put as her own.
She has the sweetest goodbye hug in the world.
Ruby's got a dad who travels the world and writes it all down, unpreciously. A dad who surveyed my landscape of books—in three rooms, across many double-stacked shelves, and said, We have just about no books in common. Though the Roth he liked. The Roth relieved him. Something tethered down and true.
Funny, what friendship is made of.
13 comments:
It is--not all my friends have read my books; not all of them like them. But what binds us together can be something completely different. And the internet can make that even more so because people connect without the external cues that might otherwise keep them apart--which is to my mind something wonderful and amazing, though occasionally risky.
It is a compulsive thing that I do, looking at the books in houses I visit. I often worry that it's rude of me to do so, so I tend to do it most surreptitiously - unless I'm invited to browse.
Little Ruby sounds quite the most enchanting child.
You write so beautifully, Beth. "The black bird in the white scorch of the plane plumes." *happy sigh*
This is so sweet. You always make me smile.
Imagine all those books, and the two of you having "just about none of them in common"!
I loved the way you described Ruby's vision of the world. You have such an amazing way with words :)
Last night, at a party, a new friend to the host: "I judged you by your bookshelves."
So many of my friends do not like to read. I am always shocked. How can that be? Then I have readers who adore different books than I. Yet, there is a magic among the friends who love the same books that I do. It is an instant connection to me!
I simply adore three year olds :)! Miss ruby sounds lovely.
Friendship is something other than shared interestes, I think. Trust perhaps.
While it's wonderful to have friends with similar interests, the differences enrich us as well. Sounds like a lovely day.
I like the doggy. So...hm. Not pretty. Not handsome. I don't know-impressive I suppose. I want to meet that dog. He/she looks like a good friend.
I love three-year-olds. Life is so good at three!
I just know if you looked through my book shelves, you'd have this puzzled expression on your face and you'd be thinking, "What the hell is up with all the Calvin & Hobbes?"
XO
A.
Would this be Ruby from House of Dance's namesake?
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