One shouldn't...

...ask apple trees for oranges.

I don't know where that quote came from. I heard it once and it stuck. It's one of those deliciously and deceptively simple quotes that means much more when you begin to unpack it.

I was reminded of it today when I was berating my eight-year-old apple tree son for not hurrying up. I was trying to get out of the house and take him to school. He was intent on building some creation with a few bits of lego he'd discovered in a drawer in the toy cupboard. Then, when I'd finally dragged him out into the hall and he was putting his boots on he started to ask me about dolphins and coral reefs of all things. I wanted to know where his piano books were and had he remembered to pack his lunch. As he was still fiddling with his lego at this point I finished up with, 'Just do as you're told for once,' in an exasperated tone.

"I'm human", he said grinning up at me, "Not a dancer."

"What?!" I said. I'm used to him changing the subject suddenly so waited to see where this would go.

"The Killers," he replied, and went to get in the car.

In the car I asked him what he meant. "Oh I don't know, I just think that if you're a dancer you have to do the steps right and if you're like me you just want to do something else."

I was still lost at this point so I ventured, "Like on Strictly Come Dancing?"

" No, well yes, well sort of...oh I don't know. More like gymnastics when Terry says we're going to practice our tuck jumps and I want to dive or do somersaults...it's all about doing it right. The Killers know that."

Ok I hadn't got a clue what he was talking about so I listened to the song in question when I got home. I listened two or three times in fact and I *think* I know what he means now. To be human means not just following the prescribed steps because someone tells you to.

I suspect that H will never just follow the steps and I'll have to learn to live with that. He'll never give me oranges, but he gives wonderful apples and they're great food for thought!

Human

Note: This apple half was sitting on a saucer on the windowsill, ready to be put out for the birds. In the absence of anything else to blip today and because the quote kind of fit it was conscripted.