“Family life is full of major and minor crises — the ups and downs of health, success and failure in career, marriage, and divorce — and all kinds of characters. It is tied to places and events and histories. With all of these felt details, life etches itself into memory and personality. It’s difficult to imagine anything more nourishing to the soul.” ~Thomas Moore

One day I picked my children up from day care after a particularly long and tiring day at work.  I did the expedient thing, if not the healthy thing: I decided to pick up fast food on the way home.  I was driving an old yellow station wagon, and the boys, aged 3 and 6,  were securely fastened into their seatbelts when we started out.  But the wait in the drive through line was long, and they got bored and climbed out of their seats into the very back of the car.  I was watching them in my rearview mirror and fussing at them for getting out of their seatbelts.  They were paying no attention to me, but were having the time of their lives wrestling and rolling around way back there out of my reach.  I threatened to leave the drive through line without any supper for them if they didn’t get back in their seats and buckle up.  I don’t know what possessed my younger son to do what he did, but I guess maybe it was his very last rebellious act before submitting to the seat belt rule.  As I watched in horror in the rear view mirror, I saw him pull down his shorts and “moon” the men in the pickup truck behind us in line.  I was mortified!  The next thing I knew, before I could even shout at my son to pull his pants back up, there was a knock on my car window.  I looked and saw that it was the driver of the truck behind us.  He was laughing so hard he could barely speak as I rolled down my window expecting to apologize to him.  I was red as a beet because I was angry with the boys and also embarrassed to death, and I could barely stand to look the man in eye.  He said something that I will never forget, though:  “Lady, don’t you dare lay a hand on those precious children.”  He had obviously seen how I was trying to threaten them from the front seat as they laughed and played in the back.  He continued, “I have not laughed this much in a long, long time.  Your boys are just beautiful.  Don’t be mad at them.  They’ve made my day.”  Well, it’s funny to tell the story now, and even back then, that man’s kind words defused a very volatile situation!