Pinewood Derby

This one is for you, Alex.

Today was a beautiful day. There were sibling spats and family members grouching on each other because they can, but it was also full of friendship, familiarity, and possibility. I like that.

The best moment of the day was this afternoon at the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. If you ask me how Sumner did, I'll tell you that he won the Pinewood Derby for his den, which has about 10 kids. If you ask Sumner, he will tell you that he came in third place for his pack, which has about 50 kids. He will also tell you that he made friends with the kid who won, Josh. Josh happens to be the newest kid to the pack. He happened to join one week ago just in time for this event and he happens to be an orthodox Jew, wearing a yarmulke and out on shabbot to race cars. The Pact Leader, who I like to call the Den Master because it rhymes with Zen Master, called Josh his "sleeper."

The Pinewood Derby is a rite of passage for many boys in America. There is a lot of family lore surrounding the Pinewood Derby in our family. There was my cousin Matt, who built his car with Grandpa Art, because his mom was a single mom. The story goes that he worked tirelessly on his car, doing most of it himself. Grandpa Art helped him with one aspect of the design, as the rules specified he could. When the big day arrived, Matt was crushed because his car didn't match up to the father-built cars his cohorts raced. He cried. There was my brother, who built his car with his Grandad A.J. because our dad hardly prefers newspapers to sandpaper. His car looked good, but it was slow. And, of course, there was Phil's cars. He won the Pinewood Derby two years in a row, because his father paid careful attention to every aspect of the car and made it without much help from Phil.

Sumner knows these stories. So this week, as Phil scrambled to find the time to help Sumner finish his car between two hospital on-call cycles, Sumner was trying to make sense of the family legacy. They were up early in the morning--sanding and painting--and working on it before bedtime--planning the detail work. Sumner and Phil were determined to make this car Sumner's work, but Philip was also determined to support Sumner to have a competitive car.

Last night when Phil and Sumner were putting the final touches on the car just before the weigh-in Sumner told Phil not to be such a perfectionist, "It's going to be just fine, Dad."

Today I was snapping some pictures of Sumner posing with the five den winners and I could see that he was trying to smile, but that he wanted to cry. As soon as the photo shot ended, he made a b-line for me and said that he wanted to go "right away." I was pretty sure that he was going to cry because he didn't make best in show. As we walked out of the cafeteria, I asked him is he felt like crying because he came in third place. He shook his head and said, "No. I'm just so proud. I made this car myself."

That's a good day.