A grandmother tells me her son and daughter-in-law have told her only grandchild, an 8-year-old, that he can be anything he wants to be.
“What a bunch of baloney!” she exclaimed. “What a completely irresponsible thing to tell a child!”
I agree wholeheartedly. One cannot magically become whatever one desires to become any more than one can have anything one yearns to possess. Here, for example, is a short list of the things I could never have been, no matter how hard I tried: professional football player, fastest man on the planet, tightrope walker, nuclear physicist, brain surgeon, fighter pilot, concert pianist, and King of England.
My parents never told me I could be whatever I wanted to be. They told me what all parents should tell all children: I was blessed with a finite set of strengths. It was my responsibility to discover what they were, develop them, and use them for the benefit of my fellow citizens. (I’d rather do this parenting thing than be King of England anyway.)
