My son has a very rich fantasy life. We often have to spend a little time trying to figure out who or what he is and how to address him. He might be a dinosaur one day and a Bionicle spider the next. (For those of you who don’t know what Bionicles are, they are a series of creatures made by LEGO and are for kids age 8 and older, but when you have an older cousin you get introduced to these things at a much younger age.)

Buddy has a new interest in all things Star Wars. He has this interest because his cousin likes Star Wars and Buddy thinks the world of his cousin. So Saturday Buddy puts on his dark blue robe which is much too long for him and gives him the appearance of being Darth Vader-like. He takes his toy light saber and goes to visit his cousin. As he’s getting ready he asks, “Mom, do I look like Darth Vader?” I thought he said “Dark Vader” so I said, “Sure, you look like a dark Vader.” He corrected me but apparently liked the name because from then on, when he’s wearing his robe, we are expected to address him as Dark Vader.

In informing my father that my son must be called Dark Vader, my dad looked at him and asked, “Who are you? The Aggravator?” I like that one personally, but lord Darkness did not.

Later I made a remark to my nephew that Dark Vader did not approve of so he pointed his light saber at me and said, “Don’t say that again or I will have to DISTRACT you!” I understood that he meant destroy, but go ahead distract away.

I love to watch him when he’s lost in a fantasy. I love to see how he stays in character when the “outside world” interrupts his play. I like how he modifies names and such to fit into his fantasy and make it his own. What a wonderful thing imagination is.