In honor of my son's birthday, I present: a stick. He helped me see how cool sticks are and I have a about 200 in front of my house-- all unique-- that tell a story of the trees they came from, of magic, of weapons, of journeys, of sorcery, of family. Someday I won't have 200 sticks in front of my house anymore, and I'll think longingly of the days when my child was small enough to insist we not get rid of a single one.