Briefcase on the Kitchen Table

I am not sure if any of you know this but Avery is obsessed with tigers. I mean obsessed. All the way back in high school he started saying that one day he would own a tiger. The reasons he gives are plentiful; they are awesome, they are soft, they are better than any attack dog we could ever buy, it would be fun to see people’s faces when he walked it, etc, etc, etc. For a long time I would say something along the lines of “You are crazy. We are never owning a tiger.” Then he started bartering for it saying that I could have any kind of dog I wanted as long as he got a tiger (fair trade right?) and I would again tell him no way, no how. However, I no longer shoot down the idea. I don’t think he actually believes that we will ever own a tiger, but I have learned throughout our relationship and heading in to my adult years that there is a little piece of all of us that needs to still dream big, REALLY big, like when we were kids. I totally believe this is why you hear so many “What I would do if I won the lottery” conversations whenever the Megamillions hits some new record. Do thousands of adults actually think they will win? Probably not. But, for those few minutes of envisioning themselves swimming in a pool of money, even the most structured and down to earth adult gets to have that “I can do anything” kid feeling again. And that is an important feeling.

As Avery and I have learned to take on the adult word of car payments, careers, and future-planning, I think it is more important than ever to embrace that dreaming part of my husband. If he gets a moment of pure unadulterated stress-free elation by thinking of what it would be like to own a tiger, let him. Who am I to shut such a dream down? However, I will go on the record as saying that if he ever walks in to our home with a cub, I am not responsible for my actions… or the tiger’s.