Brighten Your Day

Last year my son and I went to Lowe's to buy his grandpa a weed eater and a certain attachment that goes with it. Grandpa is a little older and slower than he used to be, but he does a lot for us, so we wanted to spend a little money to help make his life a little easier.

As we get there, there's only ONE of the attachments left that we wanted. Well, there was a guy there getting it down for another customer. My son looked devastated. He knew how much his Grandpa had been wanting this stuff and we were going to surprise him with it ... my son looked at me and quietly said, "That's the last one. What are we going to do for Pa now?"

Well, the guy overheard and saw the look on my son's face, so he casually handed it to me and said, "I think Pa needs this more than I do. I'll just get an IOU from the store."

It was such a small moment for this guy, but it's one of those things that you witness that will literally help shape my son and his view of the world.

After that the saying, "It takes a village," didn't mean what I thought it meant every time I'd heard it before. Instead, it just made me realize that society, as a whole, is impacting all these young people in so many ways. And most of them don't even know it.