Boys, What Have You Done?

It's the one line I remember from the movie, "A River Runs Through It." When the sons, played by Brad Pitt and Craig Scheffer, put the boat over the falls, the father (the wonderful Tom Skerritt) looks at them wearily and asks, "Boys, what have you done?" It's a thought that enters my mind often with my three sons (cue 50's sitcom music). Constantly active, fearless, exploring without foresight, my boys will be lucky if they reach adulthood without looking as if they've been pieced together, ala Frankenstein's monster, scars marking their faces and arms like the landscape of the Los Angeles freeway system. This week alone, my eldest, now 15, called his father to tell him that he'd "shot super glue into (his) eye." The details don't matter. He wasn't where he was supposed to be, not doing what he was supposed to be doing. Oh, and a helpful future tip? When opening a package that is liquid in nature: unless it's marked as "Visine", it's not a good idea to hold it close to your eye, squeezing at the same time you're prying open the top. My youngest, age 9, the next day, came home with a bruise on his face. He'd been playing with a friend on the playground and, according to him, "The sun was too bright (I don't remember sun yesterday) and I had my eyes closed." Continued to run, ran right into a pole. Just like my middle son did last year, running to catch a football, slicing open his brow where he has a scar to this day.

Health insurance is a good thing.