Permission Granted

"Daddy, may I pretend to be Jim Douglas?"*

Here, right after a viewing of "The Love Bug," Daniel is requesting permission to emulate the hero of the production, one Mr. Jim Douglas. Douglas is to Herbie's critical race in the Yosemite Valley as Achilles is to The Trojan War.

Some time after that, he came up to me and whispered, "Daddy, I'm pretending to be Jim Douglas".

What's most moving about this request is his request for permission to take on a persona. Also very moving is the extreme consciousness with which he moves into the new role.

Request for permission to pretend is normative with Young Daniel. If I recall correctly, most frequently he asks, "Daddy, may I pretend to be Greg, the Wiggle," followed by the occasional, "Daddy, may I pretend to be Batman?" And the request always begins with a very formal "Daddy,...".

(March 21, 2010)