I wish my sister Anne had had the experience I just had tonight. She would be able to describe this in such an perceptive way with deep meaning and thoughtful passages. It would be wonderful. This description I'm about to give may not have any of that. It was just so interesting to me and I wanted to share it.
I was at Target tonight shopping without my kids (which is a rare experience; I almost don't know what to do with myself there). But I was with a lot of other peoples kids. From the looks of it mostly college freshman. They were all filling their carts with stuff for their dorms, getting ready to embark on their college education.
The girl in front of me wasn't buying laundry hampers or lamps or posters, just 2 bottles of nail polish remover and a Birthday Card with George Bush dancing and singing about the "internets" She looked to be about 14 and was laughing and laughing at the card. Opening it over and over again to watch Bush's legs dance around in a jig. She showed me the card and asked if I thought it was funny. I smiled and said, " yeah, whose Birthday is it?"
It was no ones. She just liked the card. Then she looked at me and asked if I thought the man on the card was a good citizen. I said I thought that was a tricky question, that he had probably tried to be a good citizen but he had also done a lot of things that caused problems. I asked her what she thought.
Her Response: "oh I don't even know who this guy is".
ME: Oh come on, you know who that is
HER: Oh yeah, I've seen him before, he's Bill Clinton
ME: NO! That's George Bush
HER: Really, .....huh
I don't think she'd heard of him. HIS NAME WAS ON THE CARD!!!! She hadn't even read it. She just liked the dancing feet of some guy on a card. She didn't even buy the card! She just left it with the magazines. I asked her if she was starting school tomorrow ( most of the schools here start tomorrow). She said she didn't start for a month because her school, which is in downtown Boston, is infested with Rats. RATS! She didn't even seemed phased by the fact that there were rats at her school. Seriously. Anne, there is some meaning here.
Then- as I was walking away from the checkout stand a boy handed a box of granola bars to the checker and asked her if there were peanuts in them. His mom was standing there right with him and I got the feeling that the boy was asking the girl at the checkout counter because neither he nor his mom could read. He was probably allergic to peanuts. I hope the checker gave him the right answer.
Again I'm sure there are some deep themes here I could write about...or at least Anne could but for now I just feel so grateful to have had the education and all the opportunities I had growing up. I'm grateful that I can give those same things to my children. SO glad I didn't go to school with rats. And even though I wish I could take back at least one of my votes for GW, I am at least grateful that I know he was more than just some guy dancing on a Hallmark Birthday card.
