Kenny woke up and drank his daily pot of coffee, which always sets his mind racing and makes for some good subject matter for me. Today, while happily sipping away, he watched the news. He learned that the quickly cooling weather has struck many children sickly. Colds, strep and the dreaded flu are quickly making their way across the country, striking one innocent school building at a time.
At the end of the newscast, Kenny shut the television off, looked thoughtful for a while, then walked over to my desk and declared, "I know how to end it." I asked what he was planning on ending and he said, "Disease. Sickness. All of it." I gave him all of my attention, just waiting to hear the secret cure-all that everybody in the world has been waiting for somebody to stumble upon. And here it is: "Forearm-bumping."
"Forearm-bumping?"
"Yes, forearm-bumping. We need to eliminate handshakes and fist-bumps so that we quit spreading germs. It's so simple. Here, I'll show you how."
Before I knew it, he had pulled me out of my chair and was teaching me how to forearm-bump. He was so, so very serious. I, on the other hand, had tears of laughter streaming down my face. Half of them were due to Kenny's hilarious demonstrations and the other half were a direct result of the idea itself. And it gets even better. After I had mastered the art of forearm-bumping, he also taught me the proper way to high-five with feet. Unfortunately, he was wearing shoes and I was not, but my stubbed toes did allow me to retire back to my seat to continue my laughter and try to catch my breath.
According to Kenny, I will be embarrassed about my laughter when this catches on. Of course, teaching kids to cough into their elbows has caught on and I thought that looked extremely goofy when the idea began, so maybe Kenny's right. Either way, change is always funny to me when it starts with Kenny saying, "I've got an idea!" and ends with, "Here, stand up, I'll show you."
What a great idea! Go Kenny!
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