Carson Cade Elliott wants to be a "Skeleton"

What do you want to be when you grow up? Just typing the question causes me to reflect about the way the question changes from childhood to adulthood. As adults the question shifts from a desire to learn about your interest in what you want to be, to more of a statement of you haven’t a clue. It normally reads something like this: “You had better decided it’s time for you to grow up” or “when are you ever going to grow up?” I’m smiling because I don’t recall the various individuals who might have asked me the first question as a child, but I can easily recall the last person who told me I needed to grow up, lol. I am going to save the last statement for another column. We will title it something like how difficult it is to grow up or don’t be a child when you are an adult. My youngest nephew Carson Cade Elliott, upon entering his very first day of Pre-K1 was asked, “what did he want to be when he grew up?” His response caused everyone to smile thinking, kids will make you laugh with the things they will say and they will indeed. His parents don’t ever recall him saying he wanted to be a skeleton before. but that was his answer. He wanted to be a skeleton when he grew up. For children they have 300 bones in their body, and as adults we have somewhere between 206 and 213 in ours. Childrens bones are more flexible than ours as adults. They are still growing where we have become more rigid and have reached our final growth. The last bone to grown in the body is the clavicle. It normally reaches its maximum growth by the time we are 25 years old. The idea of being a skeleton when we grow up is really not that far off in truth or reality. We want our bones to be covered up with skin and tissues but we all know what it is to scrap a knee, fall or have an accident where the skin exposes our bones, or at lease some of us will know what this is like from life. I’ve learned that our skeleton makes up between 30-40% of your total body mass. Nearly half of our bone matrix mass is water, the other half is collagen protein and solid crystals of calcium carbonate and calcium phosphate. Our bones allow for attachments of muscles and inside our red bone marrow is of course red blood cells. Our bones actually serve as our body's warehouse. I’m thinking about nicknaming Carson “Skelton” for his teenage and adults life because his wisdom as a pre-kindergarten was spot on. He is a developing skeleton as a child and those strong developed bones will play a major part of his overall health throughout his lifetime. Oh the wisdom of children! The idea to be a skeleton might seem laughable for adults and yet remain cute for a child to say. Kinda like the idea that “Jesus loves me” serves for those who have heard those words or even sung those lyrics. The thought might seem cute for a child but the truth of its wisdom is certainly most perfect for adults today. It may seem impossible, it may seem far stretched, it may not even make any sense on the surface. Nevertheless, if we were to simply take a moment to pause to take time to see how this truly connects to our lives and it might just be that you discover how love serves as our personal warehouse that is our connector and sustainer in life. Until then