The Youngest Unnamed One stared at the logo on the well digger's Ditch Witch for a long moment, then asked "Why's the guy wearing boots?"
At the time I assumed the Youngest was commenting on the stick figure's choice of footwear as a safety issue as in..."Obviously, the Stick Figure's too stupid to know wearing cowboy boots are too slick to wear when you're operating dangerous heavy equipment!" So, I just chuckled and nodded.
Then today I wondered again what the Youngest meant when he asked about the boots.
Maybe, I thought, he meant "Well, as the Stick Figure's obviously losing a leg, who cares what's on his foot?" Or "If the Stick Figure's that stupid, maybe there should have been a footwear warning." Or conversely, maybe there should've been a depiction of the Stick Figure bare-footed with the warning, "Not wearing shoes will result in a loss of toes, legs or arms."
Finally, it drove me crazy and I had to walk down the hall to the inner sanctum of the Youngest Unnamed One.
He was sitting on his bed, propped up by pillows and wrapped in an old India-print bedspread, cramming in his last minute, summer reading.
"So, listen, last night when you said 'Why is the Stick Figure wearing boots?'" I said, not bothering with a preamble. "What did you mean?"
The Youngest tapped his upper lip with the top of his neon green hi-lighter and stared at me with a perplexed frown.
"What? I don't know. I was thinking why is he wearing boots?"
I went over the possibilities as I'd thought of them, to which the Youngest only frowned harder and shook my head.
"No," he said. "I mean, I was only thinking why is a stick figure, with no other detail, no hands, no face, nothing...why did they give him boots?"
I stared back at him, startled. "Oh. Yeah. Huh. Okay, well, wow. I never even thought of that."
Which is why, I suppose, he's such a creative genius. It's all in the details. Or not.
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