A Seemingly Innocent Lunchtime Conversation

Gran-Gran, Zeph, and I were eating at a restaurant for lunch today. The waitress brought Zeph a dish of ice cream - one big scoop and one little scoop:

Zeph: "Look! A Mommy ice cream and a Baby ice cream!"

He spent a moment in deep thought...

Zeph: "The Daddy ice cream must have gone to work."

Gran-Gran: "What does the Daddy ice cream do at work?"

Zeph: "Eh, he chit-chats. Then he comes home and cuts the grass."

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I always swore my family would not be conventional. We would question mainstream culture. We would be intellectuals. We would support the local food co-op. We would never, ever vote Republican.

These days? We've got the Waldorf schooling, the cloth diapers, the nursing toddler, and the vegetarianism. I've never voted Republican, and I doubt my husband has either.

However, we've got a house in suburban New Jersey. With a freshly-mown lawn. There is no food co-op. We just ate lunch at Ruby Tuesday's. Where my son ate French fries, most likely laced with hydrogenated oils. We shopped at the mall this morning.

The mighty have fallen. In fact, the mighty are looking more and more mainstream every day.

Whatever happened to all those idealistic dreams of my youth? When everything seemed so clear and straightforward? Not that I honestly have anything of a serious nature to complain about (other than our President and his henchmen, and the fact that the rest of the world is falling apart, natch), but gosh, sometimes it's hard to reconcile where we are with where I thought we'd be.

I guess along with adulthood comes practice in the fine arts of compromise and pragmatism.

Please excuse me whilst I go make a donation to the first liberal cause that convinces me the world can be saved.....