Boxes: What I Want My Boys To Know About Girls*

If my boys could sit and listen for more than 30 seconds, if they could understand the symbols in a beautifully crafted metaphor, if they could think about girls as other human beings instead of carriers of the deadly cootie virus, this is what I would tell them:

Girls are like boxes. They come in all shapes and sizes and there is value in every single one. 

Some boxes are plain to look at while others are beautiful, flashy and exciting.

However, all boxes have one thing in common: there is always something on the inside you can't see. Your job is to find out what's inside the box. If you judge a box purely on what it looks like on the outside, you will have missed the most important part of the whole box. 

Find out what's inside the box by being friendly with the box. You can watch the box in different situations. You can do things with the box like eat lunch, play sports, discuss string theory and/or the exact moment Elizabeth Bennet falls for Mr. Darcy. 

With some boxes, you will quickly learn what's inside, while others may take some time.

Sometimes you might think you know exactly what's inside a box without even looking. But look anyway. The contents of the box might be a pleasant surprise.

Plain boxes sometimes contain sweet surprises . . . 

. . . or something precious.

Some boxes are filled with fluff. Or maybe something soft and comfortable, useful and hardworking. 

And sometimes, disappointingly, boxes are filled with things that aren't pretty at all. But don't judge these boxes harshly. There could be a good reason why a box is filled with dirt. Often it just needs time before a seed inside becomes a beautiful flower. So check back every once in a while, and be glad there are so many different boxes in your life.

* What I want girls to know about my boys.**

** Also, what people should know about people.