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{"id":20235,"date":"2015-04-21T15:15:34","date_gmt":"2015-04-21T21:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/summathissummathat\/?p=20235"},"modified":"2015-04-21T15:19:39","modified_gmt":"2015-04-21T21:19:39","slug":"james-our-own-little-man-of-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/summathissummathat\/2015\/04\/james-our-own-little-man-of-mystery\/","title":{"rendered":"James, Our Own Little Man of Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

James, The Fifth Son<\/a>, is a bit of a riddle to me<\/a>. A\u00a0riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, to be precise<\/a>. Here\u2019s t<\/span>he latest (hilarious and inscrutable) example.<\/p>\n

I came home this afternoon\u00a0to find him huddled over a pile of cardboard scraps\u00a0\u2014 the remains\u00a0of the display Sean had produced as part of his science experiment \u2014 with a Magic Marker clutched in each little fist. Head at near-table-top level, he was scribbling furiously away at something, but what exactly that something is was unclear.<\/p>\n

Unperturbed (or maybe just incurious) I put it out of my mind, moving on to the business of getting lunch for the few boys \u2014 that\u2019s right; plural \u2014 who had a) already had huge lunches, yet b) were faint from and even dying of hunger. (Second Lunch Mere Moments After the First is more than\u00a0a charming nod to Tolkien<\/a> in our house; it\u2019s a terrifying and ever-present reality<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

A few minutes later, I happened across the following tableau.<\/p>\n

$\"The$ <\/a><\/p>\n

For those among you to\u00a0whom these are not instantly recognizable \u2014 in other words, everyone \u2014 let me (with a bit of insider baseball from James himself) explain. On the far left is The Man of Science. In the middle and very vibrant, The Man of Disguise. And on the far right, The Man of Evil. (That\u2019s exactly how he described them. With as stentorian a voice as he could muster. \u201cLook, Papa! THE Man of Science!\u201d)<\/p>\n

Not pictured above? A variety of appropriate\u00a0accouterments he had drawn on the backs of each of the three: a collection of terrifying, scientific-y instruments on the back of The Man of Science; on The Man of Disguise, a spare disguise (of course); and on The Man of Evil, a jet pack. Unsurprisingly, because which Evil Mastermind would willingly step out without his jet pack?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t quite understand why these three, seemingly-disconnected characters had struck\u00a0his marker-scribbling fancy, but he was certainly pleased with the results. And the combination made perfect sense to him. Indeed, as I left for work, he had moved seamlessly from the creation of his oddly\u00a0anachronistic trio to their habitats, huddled almost entirely inside a huge cardboard box on the living room floor,\u00a0scribbling furiously away at something.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, Papa! This is The Man of Science\u2019s laboratory!\u201d<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t wait to see what he\u2019s got waiting for me when I get back tonight \u2014 one of the reasons why heading home to the Susanka Zoo after the relative safety of the office is always so easy. Never a dull (or predictable) moment.<\/p>\n

$\"James\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Attribution(s):<\/strong> \u201cThe Terrible Trio\u201d and \u201cWho, Me?\u201d courtesy of me.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"