A beautiful blonde revives my day!

A beautiful blond girl on a bike coming towards me smiled widely at me and said "hi."

That five-year old made my otherwise crappy day well worth the existence.

Life is a mixed bag of good and bad days, and that was not a good one that I had drawn from that bag.  The river, the trees, the osprey and the heron, the New Yorker cartoons, nothing could make that day any better.

And then came that kid on the bike.  The day started getting better.

As she passed me, she planted her feet on the ground and stopped.

"Thanks for waiting for us" said a woman, who was slowly catching up with that kid.  I noticed she was pushing a stroller, and a man was clearly enjoying the walk with his family.

"You're welcome" said the kid who was now a few paces behind me.

As I drew even with the stroller-pushing woman and her man, I smiled at them and said "she even said 'you're welcome' right away."

"Yes, she is always very polite" replied the mother with a beaming face that seemed to reflect her feelings of love for that kid.  The man who was walking with her smiled.  The infant in the stroller was in a blissful cocoon.

As the distance between us increased, I heard the kid say "I'm waiting, mom. Hurry up, please."

I was reminded of an essay on the three most important words in the English language.  An essay that we read in the early high school years.  Strange how my memory has retained random pieces of information from those years, when, otherwise, most of the rest of the memory seem to be only related to that one girl!  Anyway, those three most important words? "Please" and "thank you."

And here was this five-year old as a living reminder of that very essay.  That is one polite kid.  A rare treat anymore.  More often than not, kids at that age rarely ever are that polite.  Adults are, of course, way worse!

It is not that the mother had a prim-and-proper appearance either.  The mother, who was wearing a tank-top, had a long tattoo on her left arm, from the shoulder down to the elbow.  Yet again was a reminder not to judge a book by its cover.

The rest of the walk, my mind wondered about the kid's life.  As she grows up, will she continue to be polite and warm?  Will the teenage years suddenly change her personality and will she become one of those mean high school girls?  How will she be as an adult?  Will she end up as a charming old woman or as a cantankerous person in a home for the aged?

It is so difficult to extrapolate into the future.  I suppose that is also a charm of life. Perhaps it is that very unpredictability that makes life so bloody fascinating.

Smile. Say "'please' and 'thank you.'"  Seems like a simple set of rules to lead a good life, right?