Call of the Wild

Benjamin's Mommy, the 'jungle call' imitator

My daugher-in-love (Angela, to the left) sent me this picture today.  I was totally taken back when I saw the resemblance of her youngest child and my middle grandchild (Benjamin, to the right).  It may not be as noticeable to someone who doesn't know them well but, to me, the picture on the left looks like my Benjamin as a girl! Cover up Angela's hair and Ben's face pops right out at you.  As Angela and I laughed together over this adorable picture of her when she was a little girl, she made the outrageous comment "Benjamin might look like me, but he gets his cut-up from his dad." 

Benjamin, complete with his "cut-up" face on

I had only to think about that for a micro-second before I promptly corrected her.  I usually would never, ever, correct my sweet daughter-in-Iove, but this I could not let go.  I know for a fact that Benjamin doesn't get all his cut-up from his dad. After all, it was his mother who dressed up, danced, and lipsynced to Celebration by Madonna at our 30th Wedding Anniversary (in front of 100 people I might add, coercing her husband into being her back-up dancer wearing a midriff top). Nope, some of the cut-up came directly from his mama's genes.  In fact, my Angela is the only human being (not even my own daughters will try it) who has attempted to imitate my jungle call.  I call it that for lack of a better description, but it's a call I do that will send my cat fleeing to the garage and probably can be heard a block down the road.  It is ear-piercing for others but exhilarating for me!  Don't ask me what it is, and never ask me to do it because I won't.  It's just something I do when the spirit moves me.  And I probably will regret even admitting that I have such a thing as a jungle call, but I must admit it in order to state that Angela is the only one -- the one and only -- human being who has ever tried to duplicate it, and I directly attribute that to the cut-up in her. She actually does a pretty good job at it, too.  But the fact that she tries to imitate my jungle call makes me love her even more than I already do.  It makes me believe that my son's sweet wife doesn't think I'm wierd or ridiculous when I do my jungle call, and that she doesn't take herself or me too seriously.  It makes me think that maybe she wants to be more like me -- well, maybe not.  But it still makes me love her more than I already do, and confirms the fact that she possesses a great deal of cut-up and that possibly it was passed to Benjamin not only through my side of the family but through her side as well.  Poor little guy, he's got the cut-up flowing out of both sides.  Oh, well, better to have fun in life and cut up, than to sit around being bored when a jungle call can shake things up a bit.  Wow, I think I feel one coming on...