I came home the other night from a ride during which I’d taken a fairly nasty tumble off my bike. I walked in the door covered in dirt and sweat and bleeding from several places. (I’m pretty sure I looked better that I felt.)

Jack looked at me and said, “Dad, what happened to you?”

I quickly recapped the story in all the dramatic fashion I could muster. He looked at me thoughtfully and then said, “Well, at least you got right back up on the horse, right Dad?”

What I was thinking was that I was a few miles from home, in the middle of the woods with darkness falling all around me and no one else on the trail. I didn’t have much choice but to get back on the horse.

Instead, I said, “That’s right, Jack. You gotta get right back on the horse.”

So when we think they’re not listening, they probably are. More importantly, however, they’re watching.