Child's Pose How my kids found peace and tranquillity at the White House Easter Egg Roll.
Posted Monday, April 13, 2009, at 5:41 PM ET
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StumbleUponAt one craft station, parents are slipping twine through colored pieces of plastic to make a jump rope. (Those who've finished are busy telling their kids not to use the ropes for fear of braining a sibling.) I reach into what I think is an opening in the frantically moving arms to grab a handful of pink plastic pieces for my daughter. A woman in a quilted jacket nearly garrotes me with her rope. But we are nimble and persevere, as the president has often advised us to be and do, and we emerge with two jump ropes, some dyed eggs, and two crowns decorated by dragging them through shaving cream with food coloring.
Now we have an hour to go before our ticket runs out. The lines everywhere seem longer than before. There is talk of going home. Then I hear a voice from behind: "Now the Downward Dog tunnel." There's a yoga class going on, and the instructors have formed a tunnel with their bodies. Kids are crawling through. There's no line! My kids take off and are suddenly on their hands and knees. They stay for the class, following along on the brightly colored mats through the Moon pose and Peaceful Warrior. I concentrate on the Repetitively Idiotic Father pose, crouching and straining to photograph them.
"You have a light in you," says the instructor. "You are all perfect and beautiful." My kids are buying it, saying "Namaste" to their neighbors and feeling the love. (The peacefulness isn't translating to the mother next to me, who screams at her son: "Stand up and follow directions!")
Post-yoga, we retire to a small hillside. Lots of people are still waiting in line. Some are listening to the concert by Fergie, who is singing about how she felt when he touched her, which fortunately doesn't move my kids. We recognize that we have room to roll on our little hillside, and so we do, wrestling and tearing up a little of the tenant's grass in the process. Then we are told Group A's time has expired and we have to go home.
We never saw the president. (He came out later to speak to Group B and even read some kids a story.) But we wouldn't have rolled around on the grass like that on a normal Monday morning, we agree, and we definitely wouldn't have had a chance to do it in such a nice park. We leave feeling as lucky as we did going in.
Watch footage of the White House Easter Egg Roll.
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