Texas Rocks

Last Thanksgiving, my family and I packed into the car and drove out to Fredericksburg, a quaint little town in the Hill Country, less than a hundred miles from Austin. We had decided it would be fun to spend the holiday there, eating at a restaurant and exploring. I had never been there before; none of us had. I’d only heard good things about it, as had Jeanette, so we figured, why not?

The boys were game for an adventure. They can count the times they’ve slept in beds other than their own on one hand, so the prospect of staying in a La Quinta overnight was an amazing one to them. I’ve had the “pleasure” . . . MANY times.

We all had a great time while there, eating traditional Thanksgiving dinner at one of the old restaurants on East Main Street, exploring the Navy Museum and even leaving the kids to do some holiday decorating at a crafts shop, so that Jeanette and I could run around on our own for a while, tasting wines and “living large,” as they say.

I’m not sure if it was a commentary on the trip or not, and I didn't take the opportunity to ask him about it at the time, but our older son Diego doodled on the hotel stationery the words “Texas Rocks” over a rather abstract picture.

I saved the doodle and keep it pinned to my wall in my office at Region XIII. I like to think it is an expression of my son’s happiness, and it could be. It could also be a picture of some rocks from Texas, (duh), with that abstract picture being a drawing of some . . . yep . . . Texas rocks.

I may have tried to ask him to interpret the doodle since then, but he doesn’t even remember doing it. I’m wondering, looking at it now, if the artwork is an abstract attempt at the state of Texas, almost like a Joan Miro collage.

Of course, my son’s opinion of the state in which he has lived for three years now is important to me. He’s getting to the age where moves start to hurt a little bit more, so I ‘d like to believe he does like it here, and that that it does actually “rock” in his mind.

There are certainly many aspects of Texas that rock. The lack of cold weather is a plus (though last winter was a bit of an anomaly). Austin is a cool city with lots of great stuff for kids and adults to do, both together and separately, and it’s one of the few cities not in economic collapse, so that’s a plus.

The point is this: You want your children to be happy. Diego is not a person who normally wears his chipperness on his sleeve, let’s just say. You really have to earn his smiles. So I could, I suppose, try asking him about the doodle next time he comes to my office.

Or I could shrug my shoulders and move on with life, taking things day by day, and being thankful for the many blessings in my life. Rather than yearning for any time or place else, I think I’m going to make the effort to live in the moment and be thankful for it.

So yes, Diego, I agree: Texas Rocks.