“I think maybe we will play Star Wars at school today. An’ if Marley wants to play wif  us she can be Queen Amidalla or Princess Leia.”

I chime in with, “Well, what if she want to be a Storm Trooper?”

“She’s a girl and I don’t think Storm Troopers are girls.”

Instantly my alarm bells went off, teeth gritted, fists clenched.

Yeah, I remember being told “you can play Princess Leia – cuz she’s a girl or Chewbacca – cuz he doesn’t talk.” I remember being told “I will not buy you a hotwheels, don’t you want this nice baby doll?” and “You don’t want to be a stockbroker (like your dad) when you grow up, you want to be a mommy and a teacher (like your mom) when you grow up.”

Recently a friend posted this question on Facebook:

“I have a question for the collective.

“I was talking with a friend today about childhood career-dreams … about what we imagined we’d do when we grew up, and why we didn’t do it, if we didn’t. So — when you were a kid, what did you want to grow up to do? Did you do it?”

My answer ran through a variety of careers and the reasons I let myself be talked out of them: stockbroker (see above), architect (too much math), jockey (too tall), archaeologist (party too much). Well the one thing I wanted to be when I grew up more than anything else?

A boy.

So people would stop telling me I couldn’t because I was a girl.

So back to the conversation with my 4 year old.

“Honey, Storm Troopers wear masks. How do you know they aren’t girls?”

Shrug.

“Please don’t ever tell a girl she can’t be something because she is a girl. It can crush her spirit. She can be whatever she wants to be wether it be Queen Amidalla or Darth Vader so long as the choice is hers and not what someone tells her. The same goes for you. If you want to be Queen Amidalla or Princess Leia you can.”

“I want to be a boy character.”

“That is ok sweetie, as long as it is your choice. If your friends tell you that you have to be a boy character or Marley has to be a girl character – you go ahead and let them know they need to exercise their imaginations more. You can be whatever you want.”

“My friends tell me I can’t play Star Wars with pretend Star Wars stuff. I have to have the real Star Wars stuff. Not Rory, but the other kids.” (The FrogMonkey can turn any bit of household detritus into a ship, blaster or droid. He has a fabulous imagination.)

“The man who made up the Star Wars universe created the whole thing out of his head from nothing. He didn’t worry about what was real or possible. He imagined the whole thing and he expected other people to imagine more things into his universe. Don’t ever let your friends tell you otherwise.”

“Mom?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

Right back at you, FrogMonkey.

I so rarely get good shots of the Professor. He needs to not be aware of the camera it seems.

I knew somewhere in there I had a good shot of the rest of the Texas family at Christmas

Our day began with enough snow to cancel work for the Professor and school for FrogMonkey and an email from another neighbor wondering if anyone wanted to accompany her for a walk in the winter wonderland of Crown Hill between conference calls. First one neighbor said yes, then another and soon we went tromping off towing sleds of children. We headed to a park where we watched the kids sled for a bit. A group of us broke off and went in search of warm and tasty beverages to bring back for all. Thus fortified, the kids started making snow angels and the adults took the opportunity to sneak off with the sleds. A snowball fight was started. We were all 10 years old again.

More photos from neighbor Jeff Carlson since I took very few. http://t.co/hR4yMQ0q