garden bug

i have noticed two things since i have been spending more time in the garden lately.

1) worms are really strong, and really fast.

2) boys may actually be fundamentally different than girls. i've always come down on the nurture side of the nature/nurture debate, but now i'm starting to doubt myself. sure we have different bodies, and this informs our experience of our realities and therefore ourselves, but i've always thought that this men are from mars crap about unalterable differences in hardwiring was, well, crap.

until i saw my stepson spend over an hour with his friends on the lawn trying to fart on each other's heads.

now, let's make one thing clear: i wrestled and climbed trees with the best of 'em as a child. it's not a matter of physicality that i'm trying to address here, it's something else. when G moved in with mum and i, when i was little, we would have serious tickleflights that entailed me shrieking, kicking, and squirming, like i was being murdered. when we were 8, N and i used to get naked, steal G's shaving cream, cover ourselves with it, then slide around in the bathtub together (!). i could hold a boy to the ground with one arm during kissing tag.

but i have never, ever, farted on my girlfriend's head. ever. and it's not because i'm prissy about farting. it has just never occurred to me. i don't just mean that it hasn't occurred to me as something interesting or fun -- it has simply never occurred to me, period. like eating phonebooks has never occurred to me.

but i hear that this is a totally normal and frequent occurance in the lives of young boys.

can you imagine? -- the next time i see ronnie or lela, i run for their knees to take them out, pin them to the ground, and fart on their heads? (ha!)

good lord.