1. The other day I was running on the trail near my house, and I approached a little boy (he looked to be about eight or nine years old) who had dismounted his scooter and was crouched down low to the ground looking at something on the pavement. As I passed him, I saw that he was inspecting a leaf. I mean, really inspecting it. And I thought to myself: "How cool is that?" Here's this little boy, raised in the age of computers, video games, and DVD screens on the backs of every seat in the family minivan, and he's out on a Saturday morning, riding his scooter (not an electric one, by the way) and inspecting nature. I was truly thrilled. There is hope.
2. On the opposite end of the spectrum, my daughters' piano recital last night. A cell phone started ringing in the middle of one boy's song. Not once, not twice, not even three times. And I don't mean "rings" -- I mean separate calls. As in, repeated calls to the same cell phone. AT A PIANO RECITAL. Had it been one of my girls sitting at the piano at the time this happened, I'm not too sure I would have been able to restrain myself. I might be sitting in jail right now on charges of assault instead of typing this blog . . . You've heard of road rage? Well, what about cell phone rage? TURN OFF YOUR CELL PHONES, PEOPLE!
