Sebastian is our fifteen-year-old son and he says some of the funniest things–we have no idea where he gets his material since his mother and I are rather boring, serious people. 

This past week, my wife was at orchestra rehearsal so Sebastian and I went out to dinner. Determined not to allow him to just sit there scrolling on his phone while we were waiting for our food, I started asking a few questions to get him thinking and talking.

While I am typically not one who promotes violence, it had been a particularly rough week for me and a rather violent week across the country and around the globe. And this question popped into my head:

Me: “If you could punch anybody in the world right in the face right now with absolutely no repercussions, who would it be?”

[Of course, there were myriad options here from world and domestic “leaders” to various others who were in the news for all the wrong reasons…]

Sebastian: “Could they come after me after I did it?”

Me: “No, I said ‘no repercussions’ which means nothing would happen to you.”

Seba: “Oh!”

[A long pause followed, and presumably, some thinking was occurring.]

Seba [finally]: “My brother.”