Improv Wisdom?

On the day Jack turned 14, he and I were at the beach by ourselves waiting for the rest of our family to arrive the next day.

Since it was just the two of us, I thought it would be a good time to try one of the exercises from the Improv Wisdom book that I've been attempting to follow this Summer. The exercise comes from the Chapter titled Say Yes:

try this:

For one day say yes to everything. Set your own preferences aside. Notice the results. See how often it many not be convenient or easy to do this.

OK. So, unbeknownst to Jack, I wake up on his birthday with the intention of saying yes to everything he says or wants to do that day. I was doing really well until around 11am when I was stupid enough to ask:

"Hey Jack. What would you like to do today for your birthday?"

Without hesitation, he answers,

"I want you to go on that slingshot ride with me."

OK. For those of you who don't know what that is, here's what it looks like from the boardwalk.

He'd been asking me to go on this ride all Summer and I'd always said, "No WAY". Until his birthday.

Oh my. Doesn't life have a funny way of playing jokes on us. He had no idea the answer would be yes when he asked. So, I answered,

"Yes, let's go!" while hysterically giggling to myself in complete and utter fear.

Meanwhile, Jack's whole face lit up like a man who won the lottery. So, we jumped on our bikes and pedaled toward the boardwalk and toward what I was sure was going to be our deaths.

Before getting on, I did call Jim to tell him thanks for being the love of my life....and then we climbed in.

Here's what happened next...

You'll notice at one point, Jack worries about me and reaches across to pat my hand. What you can't hear at about 1:09 seconds into the video is him asking,

"Hey Mom, we can go half-price if we go again right away..."

And without hesitating, I say,

"S_ _ _ No!"

And then I realize that, not only had I cussed, but I had said no.

I took back my "no" and told him I'd go again...but he was too worried about my mental health so we only went once.

My favorite part of the video (minus the hand pat) is how hard he belly laughs when he hears me cuss. It's just the greatest.

Improv Wisdom? Who knows.

You can be the judge of that.

But I can't tell you how grateful I am for living to tell the tale.