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Spoons frozen, mid-air, we’d half-considered freezing cereal bowls filled with milk, sprinkling some fresh cereal atop just to throw them off, but we were already tucked away in bed when the thought had come to us. “Let’s think,” Phil said. I looked at him much the way Eddie Murphy looks directly at the camera in “Trading Places,” breaking the fourth wall, as Randolph Duke explains to him what a BLT is. The very last thing I hope to do when I slip into bed is think. If I wanted to pretend I was savvy, I’d Pinterest my way to perfection, or at least fake it to make it. But, I can’t be bothered. For a birthday, yes. Thanksgiving, absolutely. But April Fools’ Day is a non-day. If anything it’s my own personal “biggest joke of a day” a la Straight Up and Dirty. “Come on,” he continues. “Just think.” I roll over and hide beneath the covers, determined to do anything but–
Spoons frozen, mid-air, we’d half-considered freezing cereal bowls filled with milk, sprinkling some fresh cereal atop just to throw them off, but we were already tucked away in bed when the thought had come to us. “Let’s think,” Phil said. I looked at him much the way Eddie Murphy looks directly at the camera in “Trading Places,” breaking the fourth wall, as Randolph Duke explains to him what a BLT is. The very last thing I hope to do when I slip into bed is think. If I wanted to pretend I was savvy, I’d Pinterest my way to perfection, or at least fake it to make it. But, I can’t be bothered. For a birthday, yes. Thanksgiving, absolutely. But April Fools’ Day is a non-day. If anything it’s my own personal “biggest joke of a day” a la Straight Up and Dirty. “Come on,” he continues. “Just think.” I roll over and hide beneath the covers, determined to do anything but–
“My parents never played practical jokes on us,” I say, my words muffled. “My mother just told me that every year her father fell for it. That she always switched out the sugar for the salt. And he swore up a parade. But who uses sugar or salt in this house? Who cooks even?”
“You’re talking. You’re not thinking.”
“Well, that’s how I think. I think aloud.” I am done. I have gone to sleep. I am genuinely done in. Out, when I hear him whisper something to me. I roll back over to him and tell him I’m really going to have a t-shirt made.*
Foolish April Fools’ Day: it was easy, absurd, and it made absolutely no sense. But, oh how they light up, and how they’ll remember. How their lives will feel bigger and rounder because of such a small step on your part. Make some silly magic for your children… even if you’re not a silly person. The truth is, I don’t consider myself to be a silly person. I wish I laughed more easily. I wish I were more of a practical joker. When I think things are funny, I smile and often think, that was clever, or, now, that was very funny. But, for me to laugh, it usually takes something very uncomfortable and inappropriate. Very. I don’t know why this is. I usually laugh when I’m deeply disturbed. But for my children, while I don’t pretend to be someone I’m not, I do try to enhance their lives with touches of magic. It takes so little on your part to make such a huge impact. Just as popcorn can enhance the experience of viewing a film, making it an event, you can make the everyday “extraordinary.” This quick video is just a silly and simple reminder, to you, and to myself that it doesn’t have to take a Pinterest board or a huge project to make a memory. It’s the side streets that matter the most on our adventure maps. Go be someone’s fool.
* The t-shirt will read: Why, yes. I totally wish I were more like you.
