The Adventures of Rick and Jack, explained –
Author: Rick Randall
The story begins in the morning as Jack’s mom is waking Jack up for school. Jack is warm and comfortable in his cozy bed and getting up to go to school is not his idea of a good time. Jack pulls the covers up over his head to avoid the “noise”.
There is his mom hugging him good morning and promising to make him some delicious breakfast, after Jack took a hot, soapy shower and Jack thinks he has it rough. Jack doesn’t like to shower, doesn’t like breakfast and is pretty sure he doesn’t like to go to school.
Jack sits at the kitchen table, eats very little and tries to escape without brushing his teeth before getting on a school bus to go spend the day learning stuff he just wasn’t interested in. Mom makes him brush his teeth but Jack was too fast and got away before his good bye hug.
The scoop: How good is it for Jack? Where do I sign up? Most of us are so fortunate to have what we have and we take a lot of good things in our life for granted. We don’t realize how good those things are until they go missing. Jack is only in the third grade but this thought process starts very early and can follow us thru our lives unless something dramatic happens. Like a dream perhaps. Dorothy and the Wizard, Just ask Scrooge and now Jack.
What happens next in Jack’s life starts with Dr. Rick, his Chiropractor. Behind the scenes, Dr. Rick has just returned from Hawaii and is back to his busy office and he is already thinking about going back to the beach when Jack walked in for an appointment. This is actually the true part of the story. Jack and I started talking about school and work and wishing we didn’t have to go. We laughed about being responsible. Jack went to school because his parents made him go and I went to work to pay the mortgage. We both agreed that it really wasn’t that bad but it might be fun to try something else for a while. Having just gotten back from Hawaii and witnessing a few beach bums I mentioned it to Jack.
I love this part: “We could leave in the middle of the night, just like in the movies.” What a great story line for an adventure. Just like a midnight Super Action Hero, Jack would leap from his secret exit door, in this case the bedroom window and run to meet Dr. Rick in the get away mobile, looks like a station wagon. This is exciting stuff for anybody let alone a third grader. They both laugh at this crazy idea because it is.
The next part of the story has Jack waking up? Or is he dreaming? When he goes to the window and sees the get away mobile at the end of the driveway the adventure begins. I have had a few comments about this part of the story? Jack jumping out of the window is not a good example. It would have been better if he had had at least a note from his mom and perhaps his dad would have helped him out of the window. However, this is an adventure and escaping the life we are in for a better one requires a little daring. Part of being the Super Action Hero – Super Jack!
Have you ever felt like you were stuck where you were and knew that you did not want to stay there but not sure how to get unstuck? What was the plan? What did you do?
“If only we didn’t have to do this anymore!” “The grass is greener over there, we should go see.” Jack and I were talking about a few different things and we started to dream about being beach bums in Hawaii.
Then the magic happens and Dr. Rick and Jack are walking on Waikiki Beach, Oahu, Hawaii finding a few pieces of really cool coral and some lava rocks. This would be the life!
“The first day goes by quickly with all of the excitement but”….. Everything in life has trade offs or exchanges. On the other side of the fence the grass might be much greener but were we paying attention to how that might have happened? What are the trade offs or exchanges that go with what we think we want?
Because the story is a dream and the lessons of the book were meant to leave an impression we wanted to make the trade offs to becoming a beach bum a bit dramatic. Sleeping on rocks and roots with cardboard covers gets ones attention when we are used to soft, warm covers in our comfortable bed. Dr. Rick is snoring loud. Give me mom’s Good Morning back. Did you say dumpster snacks? Where did the eggs and pancakes go?
Brush my teeth? Jack had no idea what would grow on his teeth without his toothbrush. That was a big trade off. The hot shower with soap suddenly becomes a great idea after being without one for a while.
The beach bum life was fantastic but the trade offs were starting to make Jack think more about home. Maybe home and school were not that bad after all. The “stuff” he was learning at school was pretty useful on the island. Story problems, lava and rocks and science, ants and the food chain, all had new meaning.
Start with mom, warm covers and cozy bed, hot shower with soap, delicious breakfast, brush my teeth, hugs good morning and good bye and a bus ride to school and that’s the beginning of a pretty good day. Home sweet home? There is no place like it.
The end of the story is great as Jack returns home. Did he ever really leave? “Good morning Jack, it is time to wake up.” Mom was back and Jack was all over a few new behaviors. He was a “new man!” so to speak. Still only a third grader but these lessons couldn’t have come at a better time. This is true for all of us. Take nothing for granted. Love, a hot shower with soap, breakfast and a toothbrush….. There is no place like home. In Joy reading The Adventures of Rick and Jack.