Thought of the Day 11.24.09

The other day at the grocery store, I was looking at something when I thought I heard out of the corner of my ear a man gently telling Spencer, “No.” When I saw him near a big basket of beans, I inferred that he must have been touching them while the man filled his bag. So I called him back to me while the man (in his fifties) watched, uncertain about my reaction to him scolding my son.

I asked Spencer why that man had been telling him, “No.” “Was it because you were touching those beans.” “Yes,” he sheepishly replied. “It is not that man’s responsibility to correct you. You shouldn’t have put him in that position. You know better than that.” At this the man looked at me and said, “Thank you,” presumably for reaffirming his authority. But I wasn’t satisfied yet.

“You need to apologize to that man for inconveniencing him.” “I’m sorry,” Spencer said. The man simply smiled and told him, “That’s alright. You have a pretty good daddy.” “I know,” Spencer replied.

Although it might occasionally turn out wrong, I always start from the premise that 50-year-old men are to be trusted, and 5-year-old boys are not. Society can’t survive if that presumption is reversed.