Tomfoolery

Dog: What is this?
Me: It's a pizza roll. Try it, you'll like it.
Dog: It tastes like bland bread.
Me: You have to bite into it. The good stuff is on the inside.
Dog: (spitting it out)It tastes like bland bread.
Me: I watch you lick yourself for hours on end, and you have a problem with the taste of the outside of a pizza roll?
Dog: I'm not doin' that for taste.
Me: Fine, whatever, (cracking it open) here try it now.
Dog: (sigh).....FINE.........HOLY CRAP that's the best thing you've ever fed me! Gimme more!
Me: Oh, sorry, I only had one left that I didn't want. If I make some more I'll try to remember to save some for you.
Dog: "If" you make some more? You'll "try" to remember to make me some?
Me: How are you doing air quotes-
Dog: What am I doing out here, barking at every predator and woodland creature that dares to enter my domain, if not for pizza rolls.
Me: Yeah, I've been meaning to talk to you about that. There have been some complaints from the neighbors. Could you keep it down out here?
Dog: .......
Me: Well, g'night.
Dog: Whatever dude. You suck.
Me: (aside)

Little did he know his medicine was in that pizza roll. Muaahhahahah.
Dog: What was that?
Me: Oh nothing. Sleep well.
Dog: Dude, you are so weird.

What a Girl Wants...

Stephanie from Mormon Child Bride recently posted this commentary about women's perception in the world and the roles they accept in society. It got me thinking, as a father of a frighteningly precocious 2 year old, how do I feel about this? Do I want my daughter to be a smart, confident woman who is undervalued because she focused on learning instead of achieving social acceptance? Or would I rather she find her place in today's society, and accept that the easiest way to simple happiness is found in a make up bag?

I know what I'll tell her. I will tell her to pursue her dreams, whatever they may be, and I'll make every effort to make each and everyone of those dreams possible. If she wants to follow in the footsteps of Marie Curie or Mariah Carey, I will support her because I genuinely want her to be happy. But I worry that I'll feel like a failure if she sits at home alone on her prom night.

It would be wonderful if she didn't have to make that choice, if she could be the prom queen and head of the science club, but unfortunately here in the real world it doesn't always work that way. And that is entirely the fault of men like me. Men who spent their adolescence idolizing beautiful bodies and ignoring beautiful minds. And in this man's world, women have to work way too hard to have both a successful career and a happy home life.

I think I'm just going to have to make an extra effort to ensure my fears for her and the world's perception of her don't poison her upbringing. I will try my best to give her all the room she needs to grow. I just hope in the end I'm complete wrong about the way the world is, and it shows her all the beauty and joy it has, with only enough of the bad as is absolutely necessary to help her appreciate the good.