Have you ever noticed how kids are always happy? They're forever running around with boundless energy and huge smiles on their faces, laughing and playing with reckless abandon. They're so damn happy because they're sufficiently unjaded enough to receive tremendous joy from the simplest of things.
Tonight I took the kids to Walmart to pick up some cheese, bread, yogurt and cereal. Cruising the aisles of this particular Walmart at this particular time was the Easter Bunny. As part of a Cadbury promotion, he was walking around looking for youngsters to meet and greet and distribute samples of his creme eggs. James saw him before I did, but I knew he was witnessing something grand by the look in his eye. He froze, dropped his jaw and stared in admiration. He was about to meet the Easter Bunny.
Watching James gingerly approach him was amazing. It was as if he was meeting Nelson Mandela or Muhammad Ali. He gave the big bunny a high five, took the egg he was offerred from his basket, and smiled. He was in disbelief and couldn't believe he got to meet the real Easter Bunny. He knew it was the real Easter Bunny because he couldn't see any shoes. Shoes, apparently, are a dead giveaway to four year olds.
When I got home, I realized something. Meeting the Easter Bunny made James awfully happy tonight, but there's no possible way he was any happier than I was witnessing his sheer delight. Perhaps we're not so jaded afterall. We just need to borrow the eyes of a four year old now and then.
