Self Improvement: Accepting Children

A boy of 10 was wiggling around in line for Space Mountain at Disneyland. I watched as he put his hand down the back of his pants, scratched at his grubby anus, and then slyly smelled his fingers. His father asked what he was doing and he replied, "it itches."

Later, as we boarded the ride, I watched as the boy's father told him to stop biting his nails... those same untrimmed nails that had been clawing at that most wretched hole, that stained drawstring, to rake at its burning deposits of fecund cheese, only to deposit this stinking, gland-moistened pollen right back in his own mouth...

One day I must try to at least accept the possibility of taking part in procreation- if not for the species, than to promote adequate disciplinary action by example.