I generally smoke a cigar, and I love it, too. Bud has now reached the age where he makes decisions about how to behave, and where I try to teach him how to behave. I hope I can somehow spare Bud the pain of too much idiot yearning and not enough maturity, and at the same time let him be a kid, too. So I tell him about big guys. Big guys take their time and figure out how it works.
Big guys are always gentle.
Bud looks at me with his soft brown eyes and nods, yes, he definitely wants to be a big guy. So it pleases me that he loves Old Ironsides, which, in his lifetime, he has seen emerge piece by piece from unmasted disassembly in drydrock to its present magnificence. I'm especially pleased at the polite young sailors we meet when we go to watch the firing of the sunset gun. The sailors clear tourists from the muzzle area of the gun, and warn bystanders of the impending shot via dockside sentries carrying radios. Big guys observe rituals.