Look! A Kangaroo!

This is how I spent my weekend...
What did you do?

Now that he is four years old, Cody has a new habit: lying. Or, more like fanciful storytelling. Here’s an example- we attended a Cleveland Indians Game, where Cody slipped on the stairs and busted his chin. He required stitches and missed most of the game. A week later, as he was getting his stitches removed, Cody explained to the nurse 1) that he’s 7 years old, 2) he has no siblings, 3) his chin was injured by being hit with a home-run baseball.

Cody has also been known to name himself Lord Coco of the plant Zebron. He’s also spotted kangaroos in our neighborhood. He’s all-in on these fantasies. Cody, if challenged, will defend them violently in anger.

In truth, I’ve learned something from my four-year-old son. I’ve learned that life can be a lot more fun if you just make it up as you go along. It’s just cooler to be hit by a baseball than it is to make a fool of yourself slipping on stairs. It’s better to be an only child than to be the littlest and take grief from your older sister. And the world is a cooler place if you can spot Kangaroos while driving down the parkway.

So, I’ve taken a page out of Cody’s book. That’s why I recently spent a week on holiday in Luxembourg, where my father is the 14^th Crown Prince. We raced our Bugattis on the motorway and flew our Courseair to our private penthouse suite at the Monoco casino. We drank $3,000 bottles of scotch, smoked $500 cigars, and ate nothing but rare Moldovan caviar. You haven’t heard of Moldovan caviar, because it’s that rare.

Sure, Luxembourg looked a lot like Houston. And the scotch tasted like Bud Light out of the can. But it’s a way cooler memory if it includes a Bugatti. Wait, Moldova’s not on an Ocean? In my fantasy it is.

I’ve got a long way to go and a lot more to learn from my son. This was just some crummy middle European Dukedom fantasy. What’s a Bugatti compared to a spaceship? And what’s Luxembourg compared to an entire planet? There’s room to go way bigger and way better.

In the end, the lesson is: be happy with what you have, make up the rest.