Winter's Tale

A few weeks ago, we saw the movie "Dolphin Tale," a dramatic adventure for the whole family, based on a true story, about a boy who found a dolphin in a trap and participated in a messy rescue. It goes without saying that Ian was completely swept away by the movie.

The upshot of the drama is that the dolphin was successfully rescued, in spite of some heartbreak and hardship along the way, and now you can see her - literally - through a 24-hour webcam maintained by the institution where she lives.

Needless to say, there is no shortage of capitalization on this story: you can buy all kinds of knick-knacks online, and, it turn out, you can also "adopt" her - her name is Winter, and there are even several levels of "adoption," to the tune of $75, $100, etc. Ian got very excited when he saw this on the website, and eagerly asked if we could "adopt" Winter. Poking a bit of fun at the category of "adoption," I pointed out that we have no place to put her.

But Ian was ahead of the game, as always:

"Well, she'll probably come with a pool. We could put her in the back yard."

In fact, Ian was quite interested in the different levels of adoption available, and the titles of distinction that come with each generous donation (including "Grandparent"!):

"Daddy, when we adopt Winter, we can say that we are Winter's 'friend," Winter's 'guardian.'"

Daniel then offered his own insight, pointing to the dining room table:

"Ian, she might be as big as this table, but she would splash around a lot."

(October 5, 2011)