The Good, The Bad, and the Flightless (HOL 87)

House of Laughter 87

As I was getting ready for work this morning, Isaac came into my room to inform me that he was taking his “Batman” action figure with him to school today. I told him that would be fine.

Isaac explained, “Batman hits the Joker. The Joker says, ‘Why so serious?’” (For those of you concerned, no he has not seen “The Dark Knight”, but he and I visited plenty of Halloween costume stores during October, and “The Joker” costumes and cardboard cutouts were every where.)

Isaac continued, “Batman is a good guy, Joker is the bad guy.”

I told Isaac that Batman fought with other bad guys as well, like The Riddler, Catwoman, and The Penguin.

Isaac was skeptical, “Penguin is a badguy?” He seemed genuinely puzzled that the cute small flightless birds that we read and watch movies about could ever be “Bad guys.”

“Most Penguins are good guys, but there is at least one bad penguin.”

“Are there good Jokers?”

“I’m sure there are some good jokers too, but Batman only catches the bad one.”

Isaac then made a list of good guys and bad guys.

The good guys included : Batman, Pee Wee, Superman, Gandalf, Spiderman, Chewbacca, Samwise, Hulk, Mr. Incredible, Iron Man and most Penguins.

The bad guys were: Golem, Frances, Venom, Abomination, Sandman, Joker, Doc Ock, Darth Vader, and Bears. (He really has a love/ hate relationship with bears lately. His favorite toy is “Blackie Bear”, his favorite books are about bears, but bears also wake him up at night walking through his room…..it’s complicated.)

The whole exchange this morning reminded me of a story my pastor told about setting up his nativity set with his sons. In the Usey nativity set that year, Luke Skywalker, Batman, and several other action figures joined the more traditional Shepherds and Wise men. Eventually the Dracula figure killed everyone else that holy night in Bethlehem. There is a reason I go to my church.

On the way out, the door, Isaac and I found a dead mouse that one of our cats had left for us. I told him that the mouse was trying to get into our house, and that the cats killed him before he could. Isaac looked at it and said, “That’s probably a bad mouse. He would have eaten my toys if he had gotten in.”

Gammy and G.Daddy visited this weekend. It’s fun to have company, but Isaac was a little over stimulated. We stayed up late and went to the airport to pick them up, and then went to the Farmer’s Market, Transportation Museum, Natural Science Center, and a church picnic. G-daddy, Isaac and I celebrated our Scottish heritage by playing golf together. I’m pretty sure Isaac’s favorite thing all weekend though was getting chicken nuggets at Chik Fil A.

Strength and Honor

Matt