The Cheese Cutter

I love teaching kindergartners. This week I joined a friend building with blocks. He built this machine - for cutting blocks of cheese. He carefully placed the "cheese" on the far end. He hit the middle of the machine for the center block to fall and cut the block on the other side.

He had varying success with his machine. Sometimes the "slicer" would fall but only cut the corner of the cheese. Sometimes other parts of the machine would fall off or the whole thing would fall apart. And, more than once, the slicer fell backward. "It cut this off!" my friend cried, pointing to his knuckle.

"That seems like a dangerous invention," I said.

He nodded. "Of course."

I am thankful for imagination and inventiveness. This device didn't start out as a cheese cutter. In fact, my friend just experimented with construction until he was happy. Then, when the middle fell once, he knew it was a cheese cutter he had made.

Kids seem to have an endless supply of ideas and imagination. Somewhere along the way we adults suppress or lose that. I'm thankful I have young friends to keep my imagination sharper. (Hopefully as sharp as a cheese cutter!)

I am grateful for imagination and ideas...from the young and not so young.