Having kids has been one of the most interesting and inspiring things I have ever participated in. Participation is the right word too. To a certain degree, you have a say in how you conduct yourself. You have a say in how you dress, what you call yourself, are you a mean person, or a nice person. Many things about ourselves we have say over. However, the truly interesting things about a person are those intrinsic attributes that we have no say over. Genetics is the creative mark written into every cell. Even that is not the interesting part of those indelible attributes. It is how we choose to conduct ourselves in response to those things. The things that we can't change, that we have no say over how we respond to them is the stuff of stories and legend. Kids are all of that. They are young and have no ability to make a decent decision about who they are. They might be a cat one day, and a robot the next. However, what they don't get to choose is whether or not they are a kid. It is all they have, a few moments of life under their belts and most of them spent that time pooping their own pants. Yet their reaction to these immovable realities is so very enlightening. They are the stuff of legend and we adults are the fertile loam that they nestle into. I have five kids. At the time of writing this, they are 16, 14, 14, 13, and 11. There is little I would not do for them yet there are so many things I would never do for them. Why? Because it is there's to navigate. They can not control nearly anything about their circumstances but what they can control is themselves and this dance I watch them learning to do is one of the wonders of this present world.