Learning from the Learned Ones

For the first time in a long time both my brothers and their families are in town. This means that we have a flock of small children of similar ages roaming around my parents’ house in Biarritz (Eliza 18 months, Gaston and Capcuine 2.5, Reuben 3 and Maxime 4.5). In much the same spirit as Oscar Wilde's famous quotation, "I am not young enough to know everything", I have to say that I am very impressed by their ability to instantly find common ground and genuinely enjoy each other’s company. And for things that really don’t matter very much e.g. the placement of different coloured skittles or the choice of a particular tree in the garden to represent the “prison” of the day, they also seem to be very adept at constantly building consensus and changing factions without any rancor, all in spite (or possibly because) of any linguistic differences. All of this made me think that I would like it if that at times work could be more like that... However on reflection I realized that I’m glad that I’m now actually potty trained, plus I don’t think I’d relish the idea of having to scream with delight and then chase a colleague round the office building each time I met someone new (as Reuben and Maxime did yesterday afternoon).