Thursday, June 21, 2007
The Stupidest Thing I've Read Today

Stopped for a coffee at Starbucks (grande drip, no cream, no sugar) on the way into the office. On the cup was "The Way I See It #242".

Children are born with such a sense of fairness that they will accept no less than equal treatment for all. I know — I have three. I hope that as they grow, they keep that sense of justice and learn to challenge the old adage "life's not fair." It should be, in so far as we have control of it. — Beth Vanden Hoek, Starbucks ass't mgr, St. Louis, MO

Now, pardon me as a three-week-new father, but children are not "born with such a sense of fairness that they will accept no less than equal treatment for all". Ella (my sweet daughter) has one concern: herself. When she's hungry, she wants to eat, and it doesn't matter if it is two in the afternoon or three in the morning: She cries, wakes up Mom & Dad, and gets fed. She doesn't stop and think it might be more "fair" for her to wait a while for a more convienent time for Mom & Dad to awaken. Same for wet diapers. Or if she just wants to be held.

Apologies to Beth, but children aren't born with an innate sense of fairness and sharing. Kudos to Beth if that's the way her kids have been raised such that they act that way, it reflects well on her. But that is not innate, in-born behavior.

(I'll stop ranting soon, please bear with me)

Post Author: rico
Thursday, June 21, 2007 8:30:41 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00) 

#     |  Disclaimer  |  Comments [3]
Thursday, June 21, 2007 11:01:45 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Ha, the rants are fun, and as I read them I add a George Costanza voice to them in my head.
Jeremiah
Friday, June 22, 2007 1:14:43 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
As the father of three boys - almost all in their 20s - I can safely say that Beth's view will end up changing at some point. When that happens I wonder if there will be an old coffee cup somewhere in her life she can read and then gently shake her head.

I can remember the all-too-brief moments when by pre-school aged boys were wonderfully (at times) unfettered by seeming selfishness. I prayerfully hope that you, Rico, and your wife will experience such moments - brief glimpses of the child-like acceptance that Jesus exhorts his disciples to have. But we are sinful people, with a sin nature - as you have already observed in your infant daughter - and we are slaves to that nature until we accept freedom in Christ.

Beth is right in observing the potential her children have to be the people God created them to be - we are, after all marred by sin, not irrevocably damaged by it. We bear the fingerprints of our creator as much as we wear the "body of death" Paul refers to.

I agree also that Beth seems to be leading her children in a good direction. I pray that she will lead her children to the One who can truly set them free from their true "innate" selves and find true justice and fairness.
Brian J. Munro
Monday, June 25, 2007 7:42:42 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)
Father of three boys and one daughter:
I suspect they are if not born at least very son endowed with a strong sense of fairness, they are just also born even more selfish - theologians call it "original sin". We never "grow out of it" but sometimes we are (partially, now but not yet) converted!
Tim Bulkeley
Comments are closed.