Pinewood Derby

 The Pinewood Derby was a big deal at our house this year. It was Jeffrey's last and Owen's first and Jeff was determined that they were going to do well. I smiled. And he went to work. This was serious, stress-inducing business. I didn't understand. It was a wooden car, one night, what was the big deal? The night before when Owen's wheel broke and Jeff panicked, I asked him why he cared so much about this. The boys would be ok, win or lose, these were life lessons they needed to learn. And he said he knew that. But that there were going to be plenty of times in life where they would lose, and wouldn't it be nice if they could look back at this and remember it as one of the times that they won. I teared up a little. And I understood. He was right. Sometimes these little things ARE the big things. The ones that stay with you. Especially for a 10 year old and 8 year old boy. Who won first and third place. And for a 35 year old dad, who wanted his boys to have that memory.