My Son Is a Flower

There in the center--the green boy dressed as a flower--is my son. In fact, he turned out to be the only male flower in the whole school. This is a picture from the Earth Day Concert at Larchmont Charter West Hollywood. It is all part of the school's mission to promote eco-literacy.

I know--concerts and events where children do cute things and parents weep is such a cultural cliche! But now it is my child, and I admit it, I wept.

The children created an art museum of their work--animals constructed with recycled materials, accompanied by stories they wrote themselves. (Theo made a whale he named bottlecap--because his spout was made out of a bottlecap, not pictured here). On the wall was a giant rain forest, with all its layers--the canopy, the undercanopy, the recycled animals and giant flowers in the understory. The trees reached to the top of the auditorium and were all made by the children.

But best of all were the children themselves.

They sang beautiful songs and played cool, multi-ethnic instruments. They danced like seaweed and crabs and fish. And they dressed up like living things. Most girls were flowers. Most boys were some kind of bug--with little eyes.

But not my son.

He was a beautiful flower. And he was soooooo proud of it. They had rehearsed this event for a month--learning the songs, the dance, the accompaniment. He demanded that I wash his green clothes for the performance so his body would look like a stem. And, though he wanted many things to be a secret, on the morning of the show he gave himself away as we snuggled in bed.

"Mommy, I'm going to be a flower. You are going to love it!"

He didn't care that he was the only boy flower. I don't even know if he even noticed. And this is what I love about him.

I said something to another mother and she said, "Oh, he is so comfortable in his masculinity he doesn't even care!" (She is a psychoanalyst so I felt comforted somehow, though what was I worried about?? )

And, I have to admit, he was an adorable flower.

He made his mama so happy.