I curse the Pisa

Yesterday, my six-year-old daughter randomly told my wife and I, “I curse the Pisa.”  She said it in a very conversational tone.

I crinkled my eyebrows and looked at her and asked, “What, honey?  What did you say?”

She repeated herself.  “Dad, I said I curse the Pisa.”

I asked her why, and when she explained, it made perfect sense.

We took a trip to Italy earlier this year.  (Again, taking advantage of the Air Force plopping me down over here in Europe.)  We visited Rome, Florence, and then Pisa before flying RyanAir back home.  In Pisa, we were pretty excited about seeing the Leaning Tower!  Yep, we are touristy tourists – big time – and this is about as good as it gets for our lot.  So, we snapped off photos “holding up” the leaning tower; we got shots “leaning” against the tower; and, we snapped off pictures jumping in front of it.  We even spelled out Pisa with our bodies with the tower behind us.

Finally, after our photo extravaganza, we were ready to climb to the top.  We walked to the building nearby where you buy tickets.  That’s where we learned that you had to be 8 years of age to go to the top.  My son was 8, my other daughter was 10 at the time.  This made my baby the odd person out on our Tower of Pisa adventure.

Well, we bought four tickets after some deliberation.  It wasn’t an easy decision.  My son and I went up and when we came back down, I could see that the baby in the family had been crying.  It crushed my heart.  Some things in life aren’t fair and it just made me ache for her.  My wife and oldest daughter took their turn next in the tower; I tried to console my little one.  She wasn’t really having it.  She calmed down, but you could tell she was sad.  And, rightly so, in my opinion.  She deserved to participate as much as anyone.

Small in stature doesn’t mean small in feelings (or memory).  I picked up my baby just now and gave her a good hugging and squeezing.  She doesn’t know it’s because I am thinking about our conversation from yesterday and Pisa.

But, that brings me full circle to my daughter cursing the Pisa.  For her, for that moment in time when things treated her unfairly and the world wasn’t quite right, I curse the Pisa, too.