4/20/08

Monkeys


I read once that the mind is like a tree and our thoughts are the branches. Our train of thought moving from thing to thing is like monkeys swinging from branch to branch. A monkey moves to a new branch, our topic becomes new. You get the idea. I love it when I can actually watch this happen with another person. Especially someone who, like me, has absolutely no control over the monkeys.
My monkeys are completely nuts. They are so busy and so fast that I can rarely keep up. Sometimes I just want to tell them to take a nap. They hardly even rest at night! I swear they're on something, or maybe getting too much natural sugar from all the bananas. I don't know. Sometimes I just want new monkeys even though I've grown to love mine. I'm very familiar with them. Even though some of them aren't that nice. They do it on purpose I think. Change the subject on me just when I'm on a roll toward epiphany. All of them choose really interesting subjects to land on, but sometimes I wish they would let me think something completely through before the next engaging branch is perched.

These are some things my monkeys like to do for fun. Or maybe just out of habit. If someone mentions anything remotely close to math, like let's say...FIVE, they immediately switch branches. They have learned that they will be stuck in one place far too long and get really itchy and uncomfortable if they stay. Especially if things get really math murky, like if asked to multiply.
If my monkeys land on a God branch, they want to stay forever and get a lot of questions answered, but it never fails that this large of a branch has so many twigs, the monkeys get overwhelmed. What I love most is that even though they get overwhelmed, the monkeys never get bored and especially do not tire of this very comforting and sturdy branch. The God branch can basically be pummeled with fights between monkeys and it always stays the same.
One more thing my monkeys like to do is cover all the branches up and down, over and over on the Mom side of the tree. There are many branches here, so many topics to cover. Just a few: safety, nutrition, tantrums, sleep, morals and values, spirituality, bath-times, doctor visits, shoe sizes, friends, sharing, POP (plastics, organics, and PBS), family relationships, ABC's, colors and numbers (do I have to teach them MATH?), and being a good example on all of the above.
I wish my monkeys would stay on the God branch long enough to handle the mom side of the tree with a little more ease. But these are clumsy monkeys, and they're also not that bright. So they've been a bit slow to learn. They're getting better at standing on the sturdy branch before facing the flimsy branches of motherhood thought. I'm hopeful that soon they will slow down a bit and rest in things that never change, rather than in what is constantly shifting and swaying in the breeze.
Oh! One more thing. My monkeys really do love a good laugh. If there is anything funny to land on for a bit, they like to spend a lot of time there, especially with other people's monkeys.

What are your monkeys up to? Sorry. Ryan says this is really gross. But it made me laugh. Who tattoos THIS to their belly? AND, doesn't it remind you of those times at the zoo when you wish you didn't have to see this part of the monkeys? Sorry...

2 clicked right here to comment:

Sabrina said...

I think it is a hot mess and i like it! What a brilliant tat!

Heather of the EO said...

Ryan should really admit that butts are pretty funny. Just ask Miles.

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