I love my kids. Little kids just have a different way of looking at life than we do as adults. It’s refreshing to every once in a while take a look at the world through their eyes. Our little boy Jak (short for Jakob, pronounced Jack) seems to see the world in an even more different light. He has his quirks and we love him for them, most of the time. Sometimes, he says things that really make me think, enough that I want to write them down from time to time and share them with the world. He doesn’t know it, but Jak is about to enlighten the Internet. His stuff is typically pretty inspirational, so I would recommend sharing this post with everyone you know, because someone you know might need it.
The other day, Jak and I were talking. Jak doesn’t always do well with pretending. He doesn’t like to pretend that he is someone or something else. he is always just Jak. He might be Jak in a Captain America costume or Jak in a Wolverine costume or a Ninja Turtle costume, but always still Jak. So we were talking and I told him that he was pretty great, and that we were like Batman and Robin. I could be like Batman and he would be like Robin. He didn’t like that one, so I said I could be Superman and he could be Superboy. Still no good. So I asked him, “Jak, which heroes do you want to be, then?” He looked at me and gave the first JAK-ism that I really wanted to write down. He said:
“Daddy, you don’t have to be a super hero to do good stuff. You just have to be yourself to do good stuff.”
Wow. I couldn’t help but smile when he said that. I gave him a big hug and told him, “You’re right, buddy, what was I thinking.”
It’s a true statement. Within each of us is the capacity to do good. We don’t need to wear tights (thankfully), or a cape to help others and do good stuff. I didn’t press, but I wonder what Jak thinks of as good stuff that I do or that he does, but chances are it’s probably everyday kind of stuff like playing with him or helping with dinner or taking him out for ice cream. It made me really stop and think. To our kids, we are already super heroes. And if we’re not parents yet, we can still do good stuff. We don’t have to wait to get some cosmic power ring or get struck by lightning while standing in some chemicals or anything like that. We can start today. How? That was Jak’s real wisdom. Just being ourselves. Nothing “extraordinary,” except I think on some level, we could say that each of us extraordinary and special and have something to add to our communities, our families, our workplace, our school or wherever we are. Jak realized that each of us is special and that being ourselves is enough to do good stuff.
