Johnny's words of wisdom

I'm remembering the year we seemed cast to play Peter Pan and Wendy to the Island of Lost Boys. That was the year Matt, then an 8th-grader, dryly commented, "Most people invite a friend over and this friend asks the mom of the house, 'Where do you keep the glasses?' But my friends come over when I haven't even invited them and say, 'Hey, where are the Twinkies that were in the pantry yesterday?' "

Those days ended, and new ones replaced them; but I remember one day that year when I was driving along and saw one of these Boys trudging down the street. Johnny had a gimp leg from a childhood lawnmower accident. His walk this particular day told me he was hurting, so I pulled over and offered him a ride. He gratefully climbed into my van.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"Card shop," he said. (They all went to the card shop in those days to play in Magic tournaments.)
"Well, Johnny, that's a long way to walk!" I said.
"I don't mind. I think about stuff when I walk," he said, then he paused as more thoughtful things took form in his verbal center. Johnny never said much; so when he did talk, he first paused a moment to consider, to "measure his words" as folks used to say.

"When you think about things while you walk, you don't notice how far you have to go."
"That's true, Johnny," I said, turning the corner.
"And when you think about things while you walk, you don't notice your legs starting to hurt."
"You'd know, Johnny," I agreed.
"And when you think about things while you walk, you run into signposts."
The fact that Johnny wasn't trying to be funny made him hilarious. I laughed out loud because Johnny only smiled proudly whenever his interesting mind spawned some comment that struck people funny. "Did you do that, Johnny?" I asked.
"Yeah, right back there," he pointed over his shoulder.

Ever since then, the reflections of Johnny the Teenage Sage have come to my aid.
Some days, you shouldn't think just for the sake of escapism; rather you should walk on through the pain and the long haul, because you need to be alert for those signposts along the way.