A warning sign at the edge of reality

A short excerpt from health happiness love longevity peace prosperity and safety

You indulge a couple years of Pretty Pretty Princess, and now she’s calling seven-card stud, deuces wild when it’s her deal.

And she’s as anxious to win as you are.

You don’t want her passing through your life without leaving a wake, unknown to you.

“What are you watching?” I said.

“Toddlers and Tiaras. Have you seen it?”

“I’ve heard of it.”

“These little girls compete in beauty pageants. It’s so weird.”

“Why are you watching it?”

“I don’t know.”

“At least you understand that it’s weird.”

“Look at this mom.”

An overweight mother, spilling out of her sweat clothes, was gyrating in the audience, a massive cue card to keep her daughter’s performance on point.

“Do you wish Mommy and I had entered you in beauty pageants?”

“No.”

“You wouldn’t want to get all made up like that and have a giant hairdo?”

“Dad.”

“Just checking. I’m supposed to facilitate your dreams while you’re a kid. I don’t want some dream going unfulfilled because I was negligent.”

“I just like watching. I don’t want to do it.”

“That’s comforting.”

Comforting, too, to see that we share a fascination with the bizarre, the sign posts for the outer limits of human behavior. And good to have a gyrating warning sign when you get too close.