Liam (getting out of the shower): Mommy, can I tell you something?
Mommy (ears pricking up lest she miss An Important Mother-Son Moment): Sure, anything.
Liam (looking at mommy sideways to gauge her reaction): Today, at Barnes and Noble, in the magazine section, I saw a magazine with a lady on the cover who was … completely naked.
Mommy (aware of the potential irony of this conversation occurring while she is drying off her son’s naked post-shower body): Really. Hmmm … So what did you think about that?
Liam: It was weird, Mommy. And there were other magazines like that, too and I saw –
Mommy: You saw her breasts and –
Liam (giggling): and everything. And I saw another magazine that said “hot guys inside” and had a picture of a guy with no shirt on.
Mommy (wishing that the magazine racks were higher off the ground or that her son didn’t know how to read): What does “hot” mean, do you know?
Liam (striking a pose and flexing his muscles): it means really, really good looking. But this guy, I don’t know mommy, he wasn’t that hot. He had a big moustache and stuff.
Mommy (wondering when and why the 1970s ‘stache came back into fashion and what, exactly, Liam means by “stuff”): Really. So hot means good-looking? But you didn’t think this guy was good looking?
Liam: No. It was just weird. Why would someone want a magazine like that do you think?
Mommy: Well… I guess some people like to look at naked bodies. So they make magazines that they think people will buy.
Liam: Like they do with legos. Always making things so you want new stuff?
Mommy: Same idea, I guess, right.
Liam (pjs on, teeth brushed): Can I play Wii now?
Clearly, in the battle between “gadgets” and “naked” that rages constantly in the male brain, electronica is winning – at least for now. I wonder how much longer?
And ultimately, which of these will serve him worse?
Liam saying “why would someone want a magazine like that” is as pricelessly innocent as Caleb asking if the naked statue guy had really killed the lion “with his penis out…with no underpants?!” So far, neither is impressed by hot guys or girls … just give ’em their gadgets! Whew!