As I swung on the playground with the Beatles blasting in my ears I watched a young boy and his father play with the boy’s dump truck in the mud beneath the swing.

The boy was very amused with the mud and I smiled at him as he stirred it with a large stick he had found on the other side of the swingset. He gazed up at me with his deep blue eyes and smiled back.

I went back to swinging and watched as the father and son stayed for a long time, maybe 45 minutes, which surprised me because usually kids around the boy’s age have incredibly small attention spans.

It made me happy to see a father so totally devoted to his son. He helped the boy fill his truck with gravel and pushed it down the bright red slide. The boy smiled as the truck fell off the edge at the bottom and made a satisfying BOOM ! I smiled as well.

When both father and son decided it was time to leave father hoisted son up onto his shoulders, scooped up the dump truck, and turned to leave.The boy turned around and waved as he left.