GRAND Magazine - November/December 2017 - 15

grandfather knows best

Is it magic?
BY BARCLAY HENDERSON

viewed mystical people with humor and suspicion, so it
should not have been a surprise when my granddaughter
Molly accused me of being inattentive to her fantasy world.
We were walking down a dirt road one summer afternoon
when Molly asked, "Grandpa, can you see the fairies in the
forest?"
"No," I replied in a grandfatherly tone. "I don't believe there are
any fairies." Why should I get sucked into a debate with a child
about her take on pixies?
Molly persisted. This was an eight-year-old who had spent her
life studying pixies.
"Grandpa, you're just not paying attention...or even trying!"
We continued walking. She gave up on me and rolled her eyes
as if to say, "No more walks with grumpy old grandfathers! It's
just not worth it!"

Enchantment is ...
the willingness to live
in a bungalow of stories
rather than a warehouse
of facts.

But, for the price of an ice-cream cone, which she shared with
the pixie, all was forgiven and forgotten.
Later, I read a book The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life. It
suggests, "Enchantment is ... the willingness to live in a bungalow
of stories rather than a warehouse of facts. It places imagination
before information, and wisdom before intelligence."
15 GRAND

NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2017

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At the time of our walk, I was newly retired, whereas Molly had
years to go before starting her career. Neither of us was anchored
to the same reality as, say, middle-aged, fact-filled, working
parents.
As a cantankerous retiree I resolved to seek "enchantment and
wisdom."
Then a "bungalow of stories" moment arrived. I experienced
enchantment in our garden. Hummingbirds were flying in front of
me. These birds became pixies as I witnessed their fearless aerobatics. Then the little ruby throats dive-bombed my left ear and
made hairpin turns like space aliens. It was frightening. But, quick
as a flicker, they took off. I never saw them again that year.
Months later, back came the hummingbirds with fresh aerial
acrobatics. They seemed to know I was the guy who refilled the
sugar-water dispenser. Maybe it wasn't magic, but I found it an
out-of-this-world experience. It reminded me of Molly's long ago
mystical, dirt road message: Pay attention to the inexplicable.
Now as I walk slowly down the Retirement Dirt Road I have
time to examine enchantment carefully.
Molly is older now; her world is filling her warehouse of facts.
She will be doing budgets and taxes and balancing family and
career. Then, decades later she'll retire and enter a new reality
where she can rediscover some of the enchantment that escaped
her middle-aged career days. When that time comes I hope she
has an eight-year-old companion to walk with her down that dirt
road.

Barclay Henderson, pictured here with
grandkids, graduated from Dartmouth
Business School and started his own
business as an owner/operator of
more than 20 fine dining and fast
food restaurants. Seven years ago he
retired and spends his time playing
the oboe in a woodwind quintet,
hanging out in the gym and traveling
with his Japanese wife of 52 years

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GRAND Magazine - November/December 2017

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