empathy

During spring break the boys and I were invited to join a trip to the Albuquerque zoo. Friday afternoon we headed down to join the group. When we got there we discovered to my horror that everybody else in New Mexico had the same idea. After a mild panic attack(real men don't experience this) I made an executive decision and we bagged the zoo trip.
  The boys were disappointed so I decided to take them to lunch and a movie. We came back to Santa Fe and hit the Plaza Bakery by the new theatre on the west side. I ordered breakfast and the boys ordered chips. When the bacon and pancakes came Soren decided he wanted bacon and took all of mine. Ben was working on his chips and Guacamole, he looked up and said "Wow I love pancakes with syrup!" We all set to serious eating for 2-3 minutes. Soren (Who is 5) said "Hey Daddy you could give Ben some of your pancakes." I was surprised and felt a little embarrassed that a 5 year old would be paying more attention to subtleties than I. Needless to say when I asked Ben if he would indeed like pancakes right now the answer was affirmative.
 I handed over some pancake and we all happily had lunch and went to see The Lorax.

Iconclast?

I have a need to be different. To be accurate, I have a need for the illusion of being different. A subtle but important difference. The fact that there are 7 billion humans on planet Earth makes it highly unlikely that there is no one similar. Until the news came out the population was approaching 7 billion I was under the misapprehension that  there were already 8 billion. Anyway back to the subject matter of being unique, or how to maintain the illusion. The point being that I cannot realistically claim to have unique properties, but I can pretend the same
   I have always thought of myself as a runner. In grade school a matter of survival and in later school an identity an emotional life-preserver if you will(where does that phrase come from?). During the secondary years I held on to a semblance of sanity through being a vital part of the "Animal" relay on my high school track team. During basketball season(I did not participate because I could not organize rides home from practice. I would go out in empty land across from my home and run in the dark. Nobody but the coyotes and rabbits to keep me company.  Out of time more later