19 June 2005

a poker game with Spider-Man, a unicorn and Jesus.

Randy Cohen has this weekly column in the NY Times called The Ethicist, which I like to read. The questions that people send in are usually quite good. Then this morning there's this one:

My wife and I traveled to the Caribbean with our children, ages 9, 7 and 1. Before the vacation, I went to a local coin dealer and bought several old and strange coins. We buried these coins on the beach so our children could find ''buried treasure.'' Our kids mark it as a highlight of the trip, but now I feel like a fraud. Have we crossed a line? Patrick Filbin, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

I hate to break it to you buddy, but the fact that you're losing sleep over this indicates to me that you are over-worrying. It's a GAME, they're KIDS, let them experience wonder and joy, it's OK. Relax. Worry more about the 9-yr old smoking pot.

Here is a part of Cohen's response, I love it:

If it's any help, when my own daughter asked about her tooth money, I looked her in the eye, thought about her cognitive development and told her that I won it in a poker game with Spider-Man, a unicorn and Jesus. And I'm sure that with a few more years of therapy, she'll be just fine.