…and all I have to show for it is a three-foot wide ball of tape.

Actually, it’s not my tape - every little bit of it was enthusiastically gathered by my extremely vocal nine year old daughter, and she carried it triumphantly all the way back through downtown, onto the MAX, and back to our car. I merely followed in her wake, as always.

I really didn’t think we’d end up joining The Mercury’s Civic Clean-Up Squad tonight. But when I idly asked her in the car on the way home what she thought about people taping up the sidewalks days before a parade, her first response was “that’s not FAIR! And it’s littering!”

One thing led to another, we talked for a bit - but I was sure she’d forget all about the demonstration at MLK and Holladay before we ever finished dinner. And then after she insisted that we had to take part (I think my mention of possible TV coverage added huge incentive), I was absolutely positive that she’d lose enthusiasm and want to bail after 10 blocks or so and/or after the cameras were gone. (I know I wanted to go home and have a drink already..!)

Uh, not quite. We stayed with the group all the way across the Burnside Bridge, through downtown and over near Niketown, when we finally called uncle. But before then, my small child was right in the thick of things - pulling up tape, shouting ‘freedom!’ every few blocks, fully convinced that we were cleaning up litter and taking back the streets.

Did I think her reaction was a little over the top? Did I worry that she was missing nuances and/or jumping on bandwagons unthinkingly, yet with great enthusiasm? Yep - but what does the world really look like to a nine-year-old, anyway? She believes that war is ‘bad’ - but it hasn’t really touched her life in ways she remembers, and she can’t really tell you why it’s ‘bad’. But any elementary kid can give you chapter and verse on fairness - what’s fair, what’s not, how it stings and burns and starts that nice little cynical core that most of us adults have been nurturing and feeding for years. Much like she nurtured and grew that little tape ball she started to build en route…

We stayed because I wanted her to learn that you can make a difference; you can stand up for what you believe. Even if it means you’re ripping up wads of tape from a city sidewalk on a Friday evening, knowing full well that there’ll be more there tomorrow morning.

And we stayed because, as my daughter put it on the way home: “This is everybody’s world, not your own little kingdom. So don’t litter and play fair!”

Now - does anyone have any brilliant ideas for getting the kid to discard the ball of tape already…?

Related posts:

1. Starlight Parade tonight downtown
2. Pride Parade: Alert the media!
3. Bocce Ball in North Park Blocks
4. I missed it
5. Starlight Parade? Grand Floral Parade? I Don’t Give a Rip