"With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility"

I left the house today with the intention of paying my car payment, and then spending the rest of my day in a coffee shop, writing out my next blog post.  Unfortunately, between having to run an errand for someone else, and then getting sidetracked by things I remembered I had wanted to do, I lost that option.  I depleted all the time there was today to be in a coffee shop, and by the time I got around to sitting down to blog, the only place left to sit was McDonald's.

I sat down with my water and fries (I feel as though I should buy something when I go into a place to use its wi-fi), and proceeded to get completely sidetracked again.   I have been working on some projects that require research, and I had made the mistake of leaving the research open after my last computer use.  I am no good at all at resisting such things, and so there I sat, watching YouTube videos and pinning things on Pinterest, like your typical 2010s white girl.

Shortly after I finally had the discipline to start writing (surely you see, now, why I feared that writing more than once a week would be too much), the quiet restaurant suddenly became filled with noise, as a father and his four children piled into the building.   I cocked my head in confusion- what on earth would anyone be doing taking their kids to McDonald's at 10:30 pm?

I rolled the thoughts around, and came to a conclusion.  I decided that either of two things was likely the case: 1) the kids wear the pants in that house, and they fussed and cried until the father gave in; or 2) the father is a very busy man, but still devoted to his kids, and if night time was the only time he could take them out for fun, then by George it would be done!

I decided to give the man the benefit of the doubt, and commend him on his efforts to give his children a childhood worth remembering.  Sometimes it's the parents who work the hardest who get the most grief from the public eye, and I wanted to be a positive relief from that.

When I decided that I was ready to leave, I packed up my laptop and headed over to the family.  I complimented the father on how much time and effort he's giving his kids, and told him that I didn't want to leave without letting him know how I felt.

The response I got was nothing short of alarming.  (I may not remember with precision, but I'll attempt to be as accurate as possible.)

“You have no idea how wonderful it is to have someone notice that,” he began.  “These kids are my world, and I give them everything I have.  We've gone through so much- their mother took the money and ran, and then came back and got partial custody.  She's trying to say that I don't take care of them, and get full custody, but even they know that she doesn't care about them and that I do.   My youngest boy there, he's had three heart surgeries, and my girl- she doesn't even speak, and she has to be fed through a tube.   Some days I don't even know how it's all going to work out- I don't even know what I'm going to be doing tomorrow- but I want them to have the best life I can give them, so I try my hardest to make them happy and give them what I can.   It's not easy, but it's what I want to do- what I have to do.   You don't even know how much it makes my night to hear someone say that I'm doing a good job.”

We talked a while, and as I left, I felt certain that I was in that place at that time for a reason.  Driving home, thinking about all the crazy things I could be going through in life that I haven't had to experience, and wondering how on earth people can even deal with those things, I couldn't stop the tears from flowing.  I prayed a grateful prayer that I have not had to endure such things, and a request that the man and his children be able to overcome the hurdles before them.

Today, I realized just how true Uncle Ben's words are, even if in a completely removed context.  Each of us has the power to effect the people around us with the words we choose to or not to say, and that means that we have the responsibility to act on that power.  You just never know what people are going through, and you never know how positively your words could effect the person, if you just pipe up and say it to them.