As we were heading home a policeman stopped me. While he was taking his time coming to the car, I was working on calming Avery down. She was afraid and crying. Once he came to my window he explained that I cannot make a left hand turn onto the street that I did. Seriously? When did that happen? Its been like that for "a long time" says my fresh-out-of-the-academy police officer. I refrained from my "listen Sonny....I've lived in this town longer than you've been born" speech and politely said ok. While he was back in his car writing my ticket, I started talking with the kids, answering the questions that were coming rapid fire.
When I explained that I would (most likely) be getting a ticket, Avery piped up and said, Well, that's a good thing! WHY is that a good thing? Then the people in Japan can have food....cause we'll be buying tickets for them.
Ha! Well, unfortunately not ALL money we give out goes to such worthy causes as helping people in need. I was thinking,
Does it count that I photographed a policeman's ball for charity last month?
Does it count that we just spent the last 20 minutes talking and playing ball with a homeless man who was sitting outside of the library?
Does it count that I had a salad for lunch?
When we got home, they were still talking about it (and no doubt it will come up in conversation often over the next few weeks). Avery said so the ticket is so people can have food in Japan and China? I said, well, China is able to take care of themselves, but Japan really needs our help because of the earthquake and tsunami they just had. Oh, they need clothes because the wave splashed the clothes out of their dressers?
A splash? Ah, no. So I pulled up YouTube so they could see the footage for the first time and gain a better understanding of the magnitude of what happened. After watching a couple minutes of that, I had everything back in perspective again. Ah...perspective....its a beautiful thing!
Also, later that night the incident provided us a very clear illustration that every action, every choice, comes with a consequence. And the sooner our children can learn that, the better off they (and their world) will be. $92 is a cheap price for that lesson.
And...since we live in the day when people do not take personal responsibility for themselves, I'm going to go ahead and blame this one on Mother Nature. If we were having decent spring-like weather, there's no way those errands would have been done in the car...we would have been on foot. So there. Not my fault. :) But seriously, when did this sign go up??
Be careful how you interpret the world: It is like that. ~Erich Heller
yes, perspective is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteShame on Mother Nature!!! :)