DhammaSeeker.com

“For forty years I’ve been selling water
By the bank of a river. Ho, ho!
My labors have been wholly without merit.”
~Sogaku Harada

“Living beings are numberless; I vow to serve until all are liberated. Ignorance and grasping is boundless; I vow to transform and uproot it all.”
~Vows of the Boddhisattvas

So I was at McDonald's yesterday after spending nearly two hours at the local mall waiting to have my youngest son's two-year pictures taken, which went surprisingly well considering the wait. The wife dropped the boys and me off at McDonald's for a bit of lunch and some play time while she was going to the local scrapping store sans children.

After we had eaten, and while the boys were playing, I heard my youngest boy crying in the tube/maze/play thing. I located him alone in a dead-end tube and asked him what the problem was. He quieted down, so I didn't think any more of it until it happened again. This time, I got there in time to see two other little tube monkeys assaulting my son. As soon as they saw me, they scurried off, but I had their number.

When one of the tube monkeys exited the play area to go back to get a drink of something at his parent's table, I followed him. I told the parents that their son had just been beating on my son, and that I'd appreciate it if they would teach their kid proper behavior. The mother seemed concerned about the situation, the father said “well, he's only three years old…”, and a lard ass I took to be a grandfather said some smart-ass comment that I had to ignore lest I wanted to be arrested for assault myself.

Several minutes later, as the family was preparing to leave, the mother escorted her tube monkey over to where I was sitting and prompted her son to apologize to my two-year-old. I thanked her for the gesture. She again said “he's only three years old and he was doing it because his older cousin was doing it”, at which point I said again that it was no excuse but thanked her again for the apology.

AND THEN THE PIECE DE RESISTANCE: The father walks over and asks if we attend a church. I answer “no”. He asks if we'd like some information about a local church. I answer “no, thank you”. He proceeds to pull out of his wallet a card for a church, presumably the one he and his family attend, and offers it to me. As I have answered “no, thank you” to the previous question, I decline to take it. He drops it on the table and walks away. Not only do you allow your child to assault other children, you follow up with an attempt to get me to join your cult. Really. What would Jesus do?!

“How often have you been willing to look at your face in the mirror, without being embarrassed? How many times have you tried to shield yourself by reading the newspaper, watching television, or just spacing out? That is the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question: how much have you connected with yourself at all in your whole life?”
~Chogyam Trungpa

“If only I may grow: firmer, simpler — quieter, warmer.”
~Dag Hammarskjöld