ELOCUTION REJECTED
It was a DisneyLand kind of line a few Sundays ago when we waited to kiss the Blarney Stone. A one-hour wait, in fact.  Much different than the last time we were there in 2006.

Our oldest grandkids were with us and our grandson struck up a conversation with the family in front of us.  "Yeah, some kid fell off the top of the castle and died," nonchalantly stated the man.

That's all it took.  When it was Grant's turn to get into position to lay one on the rock, he declined. "The nice man will help you," I encouraged, but to no avail.

When we started our descent, I told him that it was ok.  I added that although many, many people kissed the stone, it was fine that he didn't.  "Even if you were the only one who didn't, that's fine: you don't have to do what all the others are doing if it doesn't feel right to you."

"I was terrified," he said.  This to one I have rarely seen fear in.

I also warned his sister not to tease him about it.  But I think he would have been ok.

He had bought a chip of the Blarney Stone in a cathedral in Cork and so he said," I didn't kiss the actual stone, but I did kiss the knock off I bought."

Good enough for me.  And if he didn't have the gift of gab the stone supposedly provided, he'd have never talked to the family in front of us who spooked him in the first place.