For the Love of...Sharks

My kid is in love with sharks. When we’re at the bookstore he will look at the story books: fantasy, mystery, adventure…but then he’ll gravitate towards those informational learning books and OhMyGod if he finds one on sharks that he doesn’t already have!

He’s the only nine year old I know who has a countdown (starting a year ahead of time) for Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week”. And when his grandparents left for Hawaii, instead of saying “have a great time and bring me back a pineapple” he said “don’t wear high contrasting colours in the water.”

Reading about sharks and watching documentaries about sharks, has made him the foremost authority (at least in our neighbourhood), and he’s really worried about the future of the shark given the human threat and diminishing habitat for them. Of course, it was no surprise when he said that he wanted to be a marine biologist when he grows up. (Now I’m glad he takes swimming lessons every Sunday)

Anyway, last week we’re driving home from school and he asked what the “Nobel Prize” was. I tried to explain it to him (without the benefit of a quick google search) and ended up going with “well, it’s an important award given to people who do really special things for the world.” (Not too bad if I do say so myself.)

He spent the next several days on the internet googling sharks and Nobel Prizes. When I finally asked him what had gotten under his skin, he said “I don’t think anyone has ever won a Nobel Prize for saving the sharks, so that’s what I’m going to do.”

Oh to be young and have a cause.

I love my son so freakin’ much.