From The Mouth Of A Three-Year-Old Story Teller

"Wisdom oft comes from the mouth of babes."

-George R.R. Martin, A Game Of Thrones

"Papa J," he says, "Tell me a story about..."

Talon has said that line a million times and will, no doubt, say it a million more as he grows into the little person he's becoming since I met him last year. He's now three and the changes are remarkable. The brilliant, confused, and oddly warped little imagination of a three-year-old is a bizarre and wondrous thing to behold. Already, at three, he's the hero of his own story and is as cantankerous a hero as any five-year-old I've ever met. Full of questions that are far beyond his years, questions of life, questions of death, questions of how the world works, his little brain is always running with no end in sight until his little body needs a nap.

Talon is my "grandson", or will be whenever my son gets around to marrying his mother. He loves stories, playing, running faster and with more reckless abandon than adults can muster the energy for, as much as he loves to tell stories and attempt to be the master of all things around him.

"Papa J--" the J echoes long, as he smiles from ear to ear. "Tell me the story about the king of the driveway."

Honestly, I didn't know a story about the king of the driveway. If there's an adult out there that finds one, please send it to me over Facebook or Twitter. So, I tell him I don't know that story.

"Well," he says, literally holding a finger to his chin, looking like he is about to dream something big up for me to hear. "It's the one about the king that turned the rainbows black because he didn't have all that color for his picture."

"What!" I can't help myself. It's a ludicrous statement. "I don't know that one..."

The king wanted his picture drawn on all the grounds of his kingdom. But, he didn't have any red for the artist, and he had no tan for the skin coloring. The king became the mad king, and he ran out of his castle to look for his favorite wizard, or witch (I'm not really sure but his description was that of a modern-day witch.) When the king left to get the "witch" he wanted her to make him a magic wand so that he could make the colors whatever he wanted them to be. So, she made him a wand out of sticks, and it had all the colors in it so he could have red and tan in his picture.

"Then what happened," I ask, quite amused by this story.

The king went back to his kingdom and told his artist that the "witch" of the castle, who lived at the bottom of the castle in an underground cave, made him a wand to fix the colors.

"Why does the king want the picture on the ground?" I wonder, starting to wish I was a children's book writer and could turn this gold into a series.

So the people of the kingdom can see his face, even when they're bent over tying their shoes. Then, they'll always know they're close to their king. The king will always have plenty of people to serve him, feed him, and play with him.

"So why does the king change the rainbow to black?"

He goes on to say, "Of course he makes it black, because of the war."

So once the picture is done, and the kings been drawn on the grounds of the castle, there are no more colors to use. When a rainbow comes, the king tries to take the colors of the rainbow but he can't because the wands not that strong. So he changes it black so the army from the Kingdom of the Kitties has something to look at that's the same color.

"But a black rainbow," I say to him, wondering what that would look like if it ever happened.

"Oh, I like a black rainbow, Papa J. Black's my favorite color. If I was the king I would make all the people black just like the army of the cats..." he says as he breaks off into hysterical laughter. As I look down at the ground, the chalk drawings we have done suddenly making sense, I find that I'm the artist of his story and he, in his little imagination, is the star of his grand adventure of the mad king.

Taking our adventure off to the park I wonder to myself, what other words of wisdom might come from that little guy today.

If you liked my story you can let me know by dropping a heart below. I'm really glad you took the time to read about our adventure today.