Context

By popular demand: context.

I let him check out "The Goonies" from the library. I remember this movie as being mostly harmless though annoying. I got the annoying right--how many underage actors can you get to scream and talk at once, sheesh--but the danged thing actually scared the Boy. He had NO PROBLEM with Jurassic Park but The Goonies flipped him right out, go figure.

In one part the stupidass Goonies find a dead body and this was the thing (along with the bad guys) that really upset him. Stupid me, it really does make sense because he's always had this oddly mature sense of understanding reality from fantasy. He loves made-up stuff, but never mistakes it for real stuff. Hence, dinosaurs--cool but so not scary; bad guys and dead people--crying a little at bedtime.

So, knowing the way his brain works, I explained how difficult it actually is to be the actor who plays the dead body. I explained that you can't laugh, or blink, or itch your nose, or anything. "Do you have to try not to let anybody see you breathe?" he asked. "Cause that would be hard! But I can do it. Go on! Pretend I'm the dead guy! Now pretend you're the dead guy! Now me! Go on, try to make me laugh, Mom!"

The little bugger didn't crack up once. He is the best corpse in the family!

In other news, I had a bigass epiphany, so to speak, but I can't tell you about it now because I am addressing my sleep issue and going to bed on time. So there. Smoochie.