The Weird: I'll open with the coincidence. It's the internet age, and I know several people I consider friends, but who I have never met in real life. After I wrote about the con, one of the folks I've never met in person and probably never will happened to see the post and mentioned that he'd been at the con and caught the same wedding there. We were in the same room together, probably no more than ten or twenty feet away. Weird. I had no idea that he was even local. Of course, we're only aware of such coincidences when they happen. For every time when you get a phone call from your mom when you're thinking of her, there are thousands of times when you're thinking of her and she doesn't call. We only see the hits. The misses are invisible to us.
The Bad: We almost didn't make it to the con at all. As we were getting ready, Jen was putting on her Buffy costume and Lily threw a fit because "Buffy doesn't wear that much blush!" It really escalated and she got completely bent out of shape about it.
I tried to turn the whole thing into a teachable moment. I tried to explain that other people are going to make decisions that she isn't going to like, but the freedom to make decisions includes the freedom to make bad decisions, and it isn't her choice on how much blush mommy wears as part of a costume. (And it's not like it was an excessive amount either, but that's hardly the point.)
She got over it, eventually, and we went to the con, where we had a happy moment. Most of the people reading this far will have already read about this on Facebook, but I'll repeat it here.
The Good: When we were in the shopping mall housing the con, some motion caught my eye and I saw that someone had dropped something. When I looked closer, I saw that it was a pile of cash, but I couldn't see who had dropped it. So I kept my eyes peeled, and caught the next time money fell, presumably from the same person.
So Lily and I ran her down and asked if she had dropped it, and she checked and saw it must have fallen from a bank envelope that had become turned upside down while she was carrying it. She looked ready to cry as she gave me a hug and told me that was all her money in the world.
It's always a good feeling knowing you've done something good, but it's extra nice doing it with your daughter and superheroes. Let's hope that if Lily maintains an interest in superheroes as she gets older, we can set an example that says that sometimes the most "heroic" thing you can do for someone is to perform a small kindness that they can't do themselves. It wasn't my intent to set a good example for Lily, but I'm glad I could. I hope the lesson she takes from this is that helping people isn't remarkable, but just something one does when presented with the opportunity.The only remarkable thing about it was that I was lucky enough to see the second set of bills fall, as it's difficult to determine ownership of money. ("Excuse me, ma'am, do you recognize this money?" "Oh, yes, that's mine. It has George Washington on it, just like mine!")
The Good: When we were in the shopping mall housing the con, some motion caught my eye and I saw that someone had dropped something. When I looked closer, I saw that it was a pile of cash, but I couldn't see who had dropped it. So I kept my eyes peeled, and caught the next time money fell, presumably from the same person.
So Lily and I ran her down and asked if she had dropped it, and she checked and saw it must have fallen from a bank envelope that had become turned upside down while she was carrying it. She looked ready to cry as she gave me a hug and told me that was all her money in the world.
It's always a good feeling knowing you've done something good, but it's extra nice doing it with your daughter and superheroes. Let's hope that if Lily maintains an interest in superheroes as she gets older, we can set an example that says that sometimes the most "heroic" thing you can do for someone is to perform a small kindness that they can't do themselves. It wasn't my intent to set a good example for Lily, but I'm glad I could. I hope the lesson she takes from this is that helping people isn't remarkable, but just something one does when presented with the opportunity.The only remarkable thing about it was that I was lucky enough to see the second set of bills fall, as it's difficult to determine ownership of money. ("Excuse me, ma'am, do you recognize this money?" "Oh, yes, that's mine. It has George Washington on it, just like mine!")
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