One of my assignments when I volunteered in my son’s kindergarten class the other day was to hang the children’s artwork above the chalkboard. The artwork had a Halloween theme. Basically the children cut out pumpkins that they made from orange construction paper and glued them to a piece of black construction paper. Then they drew ghosts and other creatures of the night with white chalk. They were adorable creations.

With most of the artwork, it was fairly simple to tell if I was hanging the picture right side up. The kid’s names in the bottom left hand corner helped me figure out how to hang any questionable ones. I really only struggled with one picture. It was a mess, and I had no idea what I was looking at. And of course I couldn’t find a name anywhere. I certainly didn’t want to hurt a little kid’s feelings by hanging his or her artwork upside down. I had no choice but to wing it because this kid gave me no clue whatsoever.

I secretly said to myself, “Whoa, I hope this kid doesn’t have dreams to be the next Da Vinci, because it ain’t gonna happen.” Then I was ashamed of myself for judging a kindergartener so harshly. I decided just to hang the picture and hope for the best. It was in that instant that I noticed a faintly scribbled name in the left hand corner. Well wouldn’t you know, it was my son’s name. I did a double take and thought, “No surely not, this can’t be my son’s Halloween picture that I was just snickering over moments ago.” But it was.

So I had to backtrack. And look for the beauty in it. And I found it with one simple college memory of surrealism in the art world. Yes that was it. My son’s picture was surreal! All the other pictures looked the same. My son’s was different. He might not be the next Leonardo Da Vinci, but he sure had a fighting chance to be the next Salvador Dali! Poor kid. I guess he’ll have to survive growing up with me first.

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