Coffee

Last night I had four kids here, my three youngest plus one of their friends. One son stayed out way late -- 2:30 a.m. or so, causing me to worry -- without cause as it turns out. He was just partying with friends.

But my sleep was disrupted in the process, which in turn affected my day.

Yet it was a good day, even if a sleep-walked through much of it.

At 8:15, Julia and I left for her volunteer counseling job at the SPCA. She asked if we could leave then so we could stop on the way for her to buy a latte at Starbucks.

Of course.

When she got in the car with her coffee, she described the scene inside...a long line, made longer by a customer who repeatedly complained that she had not been served what she ordered and abused the servers verbally.

"They all stayed nice and smiled at her and apologized," Julia said.

"Working in retail is very hard," I rejoined.

I am sure when Julia made it to the front of the line she was polite, friendly and smiling.

That's my daughter. To be explicit, I feel there is no greater human quality than empathy. Abusing others in any way is unacceptable needs to be bred out of this killer species. Maybe, if we are all lucky, that unhappy, entitled customer at Starbucks this morning will never reproduce.

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