Looking Out My Window

The two kids were brothers – an older brother and a smaller, younger brother. As you might expect, the big brother had already nailed down the prime spot with the most formidable weapon (the garden hose – which he brandished with intimidating bravado). The little brother had a very different role. His focus was on dislodging the hose from the big guy’s grasp or forcing the older one to abandon the spot where he could deploy the hose effectively, and to that end, he applied a variety of tools and strategies, including frontal assault with a full water bucket, flanking action with a plastic whiffle ball bat, and an assortment of other techniques. Of course, his attacks tended to be unsuccessful (he was, after all, the little brother), but he could keep attacking as long as he wanted – using any techniques he wanted – and my mathematical mind quickly concluded that, if he attacked long enough and applied a sufficiently broad range of strategies, something would eventually happen that would change the stakes of the encounter.