After dinner walks

Among the memories we experience, surely among the most wistful, where we feel simultaneous loss as well as intense happiness, is when we see our children doing something as we did when we were their age.

After dinner, in Austria, we would often go "spazieren". For a walk. Sometimes even, me and my cousins would be on bikes, and the parents, through ignorance or sheer folly, would actually walk. With hands behind their backs, which slows you down even more.

And so now, years later, without any conscious plan, it just fell into place naturally somehow, Natalya and I find ourselves on a walk after dinner, with the boys on their bikes way ahead of us.

In the beginning, Maxime would race ahead of Gabriel, which would reduce Gabriel to tears. Because, you see, all Gabriel wants, more than anything in the world, is to be big, like Maxime and his friend Simeon.

So, we spoke to Maxime, and he has turned things around, and lets Gabriel win. Most of the time. And when Gabriel is just too far behind, he helps Gabriel come in for a smooth landing.