Pigeons and the Flag

One day, as the stories tend to begin, my son came home from kindergarten with a very perplexed look upon his face. After fixing him a snack, I asked him if everything was all right.
He replied that everything was fine but had a problem that he just couldn't figure out.

"Well, son, sometimes if you talk a problem out with another person it helps you figure it out."

"Ok," his little brow furrowed with seriousness,"Mommy, what do birds have to do with the flag?"

I chuckled a bit, thinking he meant the eagle that was perched on the school's flagpole.

"The eagle is a national symbol of America. It is what we call the national bird. So, many flag poles have an eagle on them."

Now, at this point in the story I wish to digress a bit to tell you that William was born "forty years old," as we say. He is an extremely intelligent person with a very serious temperament.

As if he were the adult and I the child, he looked me in the eyes and said slowly, "Yes, mommy, I know that. I don't understand the pigeons. Why pigeons?"

My mind raced forward and backwards trying to decipher this one. Anyone who has or works with small children knows that they do not always "hear" words the same way adults hear them. Try as I might I could not make a connection between the flag and pigeons! The closest I could come was that pigeons were feeding around the flagpole.

"Well, William, sometimes pigeons visit where humans gather because they know they will be fed."

Have you ever said the obviously wrong thing to a child when they are trying to explain themselves? By the look on his face, I could tell that William was ascertaining my own intelligence and ability to raise children.

"No, mommy," he said with great patience holding his frustration at bay, "When we say 'The Pledge.'"

"Honey, I'm lost," I finally said, "You're going to have to give me some help here."

He let out a great sigh and explained, "When we say 'The Pledge' we talk about the pigeons." The confused look on my face prompted him to continue. Another sigh, accompanied by eye rolling, "You know," he stood up and put his hand over his heart, "I led the pigeons to the flag."