Image by Helga Kattinger from Pixabay
“I care for all Creation, but I'm not snuggling up with a slug … all that slime … I just can't.”
Seven-year-old Amanda Ludlow was talking with best friend eight-year-old Gracie Trent about boundaries, although they did not know it by that name.
“Ain't it the truth,” Gracie said. “I love Goody and Goldie my dog and cat, but I have to make sure they get the right stuff in their diet because kibble turns their gas into the kind of thing that Milton accidentally made when he put bleach and PineSol the washer that one time.”
“Ewwwwwww – no!” Amanda said. “I love them, but yeah, they gotta eat right, because no – I can't be around that!”
“I think about this the way Vanna my big sister thinks about this,” Gracie said, “and so she was on the phone telling her friends that the price of even getting in is that you are not going to hurt her or anyone else. I feed Goody. I feed Goldie. They can't be gassing us out of house and home and get fed by me, so even though they like kibble, we're just not doing that. There's the stuff they can do, and there's the stuff we can do, and I can't be in everything.”
“Exactly,” Amanda said. “I can't be in everything, or rubbing up against everything! Slugs are cool because they are part of Creation but not cool with me. I mean if there's a fire or something I'm going to overlook the slime and rescue the slugs, but every day I just can't … it's like there was a whole situation when Papa was out picking me up when one of our cousins your big sister's age was in trouble, and Papa rolled up on that man about your big brother's age and told him 'Let me explain this to you, boy – neither you nor any vile secretion of any organ of your body are permitted to touch Veronica again, and all you get to decide is what part of you I am going to cut off of you slowly if you forget.'”
“Well,” Gracie said, “that was clear.”
“Oh, it was,” Amanda said. “He started running and I don't know if he ever stopped. Cousin Veronica is married to a wonderful man now and they have two adorable children and there are no problems.”
“But that's the thing – we ain't gotta have all these problems,” Gracie said. “We just don't rub up against slugs, let Goldie and Goody eat kibble, and hang out with everybody, because who needs the drama? It's like your baby brother Robert is five years old and if you are 15, 25, 35, 45, 55, or older, but you don't know how to act as well as he does, you don't really need to be around.”
“I love Rob so much,” Amanda said. “He's loud sometimes, and he talks a lot, but he is so sweet and loves so much.”
“Exactly,” Gracie said, “and if you think you are grown, and you don't get it, that's OK, but just not OK over here, because there's what you do and there's what WE are going to do, and that's two different things.”
“Exactly,” Amanda said.