While shopping for a box of cookies at the corner drugstore, I notice a 9 year old girl has cut in front of me to stand at the nearly empty checkout line. I am not in a hurry, so I let her go ahead. Unbeknownst to me, her mother is still shopping and has sent her there to reserve her place at the front of the line. I only discover this when the mother shows up with a brimming shopping basket and takes her place in front of me. Since the line is only two people deep, I am perplexed by this seemingly unnecessary maneuver. I point out to mom that, although I do not mind waiting, I am curious as to whether she has noticed me standing there. She, in turn, is baffled by the question. Do I not see her daughter also standing there...?!
I would like to believe that as we gain experience and awareness, each generation is an improvement on the next. I would like to have faith in the concept that our love for our children includes a wish that they will supersede our own shortsightedness. That our failure to reach out to others in kindness, will only serve to inspire our children to further extend their own generosity.
Teach your kids to lie and cheat and before you've had time to notice, they'll be doing it to you. Emphasize to them the importance of getting in front of the proverbial line of society, irregardless of what they must do to achieve this place, and you will have forfeited your (and their) humanity.
