"Tell me a story" he said, sited in that little chair of his. I didn't want to tell a story, but how do you say no to a kid like that.

"Sure, what kind of story?" I said, remembering all the classic stories

"About an adventurer" he said, not even knowing how to spell that word

"But where is he, what is he doing?" I asked, confused. Adventurers? Cinderella was not an adventurer, was he speaking of Hanzel and Gretel kind of brat without sense of orientation adventurers?

"I don't know, it's your story" he said, fixing his deep black eyes on me

"Well, his name was... Dave, Dave the explorer. He was a very clever and brave adventurer, he climbed mountains and crossed rivers." I said, coming up with every word in the run

"Was he really strong?" the boy asked

"Yes, he was brave" I said, noticing later the great fallacy I had just imposed in the infant.

"Is it the same?" he asked

Is it the same? to be brave and strong? Because you do need will strength to overcome adversity, but you need the courage to survive it. So was Dave brave or strong? Was he both? So I started to see the morals on it, and felt all nice teaching philosophy to a kid.

"No, it is not. Dave is not strong, he is brave" I said

"So how can he climb all those mountains?" He asked, following the idiosyncrasy of today's world, the law of the strongest. How could explorer-mountain climbing-river crosser Dave not be strong?

"Well, his courage is a kind of strength you see, even if his body is tired he can go on, he is brave" I said, trying to figure out if I had made any sense.

"But that's not being strong and powerful" he said

"He is strong and powerful, in other ways. He has huge spiritual strength, he can accomplish what he sets his mind into" I said, now sounding all like a self-improvement bestseller.

"Well can he break rocks?"Darn this kid sure asked questions

"Yes... spiritual rocks"I continued, making no sense

"What?"

"He can break the obstacles and difficulties in his life, because if he is whiling to face them, nothing can stop him" I said, now Motivation ads sure had to hire me.

"Like me and my cancer?" he asked, making a hole in my stomach. I froze dead, his fluent way of saying it as if we were speaking of his socks shocked me. I knew he knew about it, I always knew he was taking it right, yet he was still seven. He needed no speech about strength, he was Dave the freaking adventurer.



By I'm the penguin