Field Trip

I broke an unspoken rule. I packed hotdogs for my kid's lunch but needed to use bread vs. buns.

Joking aside, things like this happen. But what can also happen is other kids commenting, which is precisely what happened.

My oldest daughter was eating her bread-encased hotdog, and a classmate asked, "Are you guys poor?"

Being far more emotionally resilient than me, my daughter brushed it off and continued to enjoy her lunch. But when she told me, my first reaction wasn't as controlled (although it was all internal).

"Oh really, that little punk thinks we're poor? I should bring them down to work with me one day and have them walk by the tent city a few blocks away. And that isn't even considered poor in many parts of the world."

This internal rant made me realize a fundamental truth — experience matters. Perspective matters. If I could take my daughter's class on a field trip, her peers would quickly see that their concept of poor is radically inaccurate.

We could all use to go on a field trip once in a while, if for no other reason than to see that a hotdog in a piece of bread isn't that big of a deal.