The Climbing Tree

This is the climbing tree. It sits at the end of our block at the corner. Cass started asking me to put him up there to stand in the low-hanging cradle about three years ago, and now he can climb all the way up her branches by himself. Ollie asks me to lift him--just like his brother. Only he's a lot more daring than Cass was back then, following Cass to heights he probably shouldn't be scaling. But that's the universal dynamic, right? Younger brother follows -- reaching higher, climbing scrappier, angling bigger, hustling faster, daring farther -- but always looking up.