Sidekick

One of my favorite conversation memories is a driveby exchange I had with Paul, then a five- or six year-old sage who was enjoying riding around me on his bicycle, in his soccer gear—no training wheels, all freedom. I remember the conversation going like this:

“Do you like soccer, Paul?”

“Not really. I just play.”

A couple more quiet laps.

“Hmm. .. What’s your team’s name?”

“The SighKICKS” he said with a little kid kind of Doppler effect.

“The Psychics?” I asked.

“NO. The Sidekicks….!” A few more laps. “But what’s a psychic?”

“That’s someone who always knows what’s going to happen in the future.”

“Oh,” he said, confident and reassured. “My mom is one of those.”

Earlier this week as my sidekick and I walked the woods, I thought a bit about signs of the future and wondered whether Cedar had any sense of time other than the present. Devil’s Club seems to be the best psychic of our turf: clearly we’re rounding into fall and the giant plants are already starting to give us our views back.

The AKC missive had just arrived with a headline, “What to Expect in Your Pup’s Second Year.” No psychic insights there: My girl’s personality is almost fully formed and there’s a bunch of stuff I should have done already. I did Google around a bit and found some good advice for this being an important time to assert and reassert my leadership, and to remember that Cedar and I are on the same team…That felt a bit too much like real life, so I let myself drift a bit into the whole notion of a sidekick.

Thanks to Wikipedia, I learned that the term comes from pickpocketing, but there’s a rich literary tradition of sidekicks, from Don Quixote’s Sancho Panza to Porky Pig. The sidekick functions to humanize the “hero.” (Hey, it’s my blog.) But here’s the part that rang especially true for me and my sidekick:

While unusual, it is not unheard of for a sidekick to be more attractive, charismatic, or physically capable than the supposed hero. This is most typically encountered when the hero’s appeal is more intellectual rather than sexual. Such heroes (usually fictional sleuths and scientists) are often middle-aged or older and tend towards eccentricity. Such protagonists may, due to either age or physical unsuitability, be limited to cerebral conflicts, while leaving the physical action to a younger or more physically capable sidekick.

See that, folks? Cedar, while no good at telling the future, is well on her way to showing off my intellectual appeal.

And yes, Mom, you are not just my only remaining reader; you are also my favorite psychic. I’m glad you’re still out there to tell me about the future, however bracing the news may be.