A TOUCH OF KINDNESS

It was late Sunday morning when the family gathered in the living room of their overcrowded apartment and watched as 2-year old, Lea, and 3-year old, Mia, played with their brand new Barbie doll toy house.  We shall call the mother of the 2-year old...uhh...Rosa and the mother of the 3-year old...uhh...Haley and they are joined by the Grandparents...uhh...let’s see...we’ll go with Cruz and Oli.  Rosa was the first to speak out, “What are we going to do for Lea’s birthday?”  Grandpa Cruz suggested “Let’s take them to Storyland...that should be fun.” Then Haley started to complain, “Storyland’s boring...we should go to the beach instead!”  Grandma Oli joined in on the conversation, “This is for the children not adults.” “Well...I want this to be a special day for Lea’s birthday.” said Rosa “Since you and Haley are leaving to New Mexico...Mom...I want you and Cruzy to at least spend sometime with Lea before you leave.” Haley added, “There’s nothing to do in Storyland...it’s just a boring park.”  “No not really.” said Grandpa Cruz  “They have a bunch of kiddie rides, they even have train rides!”  

And so the argument continued on where the family should go for Lea’s birthday, which got so clustered that the entire living room sounded like a bunch of clucking chickens.  Then suddenly the 2-year old started to scream from the top of her lungs because her 3-year old cousin had ripped away a Barbie doll from her hand, regardless, that there was about a half-dozen other Barbie dolls to choose from that were piled up next to the three-story Barbie mansion.  “Mia...give the doll back to Lea!” said her mother, Haley, “She had it first...go get another one!” After some severe persuasion, Mia reluctantly gave the Barbie doll back to Lea, who accepted it with a great joyful laugh, but then she saw the tears building up in her cousin’s eyes and said, “Here”  and the two-year old handed the doll back to the 3-year old and then said, “Because you are my sister!”  

“Did she just said what I think she said?” asked her mother, Rosa.   “She sure did!” said Grandpa Cruz.  Suddenly, the entire living room became completely quiet, most likely, because a small 2-year old infant had just showed a group of disagreeing adults an act of compassion and a touch of human kindness that is very rare or seldom carried out in today’s society.  About fifteen minutes passed before everyone got over their guilty feeling of performing a feat of a very foolish and very unnecessary selfish act and Grandpa Cruz finally said, “So Stortyland then?” And instantly everyone spoke at the same time, “YES!”