What We Do As Human Beings

When:  Earlier this morning.

The scene:  In the car, Dad driving ninth-grader daughter to school.  Almost there.  Daughter has a test today and seems a bit stressed.

Dad (looking down at car floor under Daughter's feet):  What's that clicking noise?

Daughter (herself looking down):  The handles on my purse.

Dad:  Can you move them apart or something so they won't make that noise?

Daughter:  I HATE it when people do that!

Dad:  What's that?

Daughter:  I didn't even notice the clicking till YOU said something, and now it'll drive me crazy!  (Implied but not spoken, this time:  It's all your fault!)

Dad (mildly):  Well, yeah — I noticed it, and figured we should do something about it.

Dad (foolishly thinking this might be a teachable micro-moment):  When you think about it, that's a big chunk of what we do as human beings:  We notice things we don't like, and we try to do something about it.

Daughter:  You don't have to notice stupid stuff!

Dad (wisely):  There is that, I guess.

(Arrival at school.)

Comments

[Redlefty]

Stressed? Sounds perfectly normal for a 9th grader to me. :)