Second on the right, and straight on till morning

Growing up, my dad often asked me to run away to Neverland with him. "let's never grow up" he'd say. In the wisdom of my childhood, I would roll my eyes and say "oh dad, I'm going to grow up and you know it". That statement was often coupled with my doing the oh-so-grown-up foot stamp. I found his request for me to stay the age I currently was to be so ridiculous. Of course I would grow up, of course I wasn't going to stay six (eight, ten, twelve, whatever) for ever, of course there was no such place as Neverland. Silly man.

Yet now I'm the grown up. With a son just on the verge of turning 5. That son just had his skating recital, where he and all the other little preschool boys were dressed as Peter Pan, the king of Neverland. The son who is excited about turning 5, about going to "fronch immersion" as he calls it, who talks about "when I'm a grown up man" and all the things he will do. Now I understand the desire to run away to the place where children don't grow up and there is always fun to be had.

I wonder what he'd say if I asked him to fly away to Neverland with me....