Strange Hope

OK, so the title is, once more, a little off. I'll explain.

A couple nights ago I was grabbing some food at a local fast-food chain, and there was no one there in line (it was 2 a.m., for cryin' out loud). I commented to the guy with the headset, and he explained that he loved the shift because he gets to go to school in the mornings.

My food took a while, so the man showed me a picture of his wife and daughter (both lovely, by the way, and his daughter turns four next week). He also told me that he doesn't need to work because he stays rent-free in an apartment building his mother owns. But he does work. Hmm. He has always seemed bright and on top of things when I have driven through for my food, and I expect he does well in his courses, but why, when he doesn't need the money, should he work? Why not just plow through school and get the degree (his wife is a student, too)?

He said he works so that his daughter can see that he's not just a bum. He wants to get his education, have the ability to buy things his wife and daughter want, and show his daughter that work has value beyond a paycheck. Sometimes I agree with Sunshine when she says this is not a great world, and having children may be cruel to those children, but then I find hope in the strangest of places and at the oddest of times.

The world's going to be OK. Whatever one person with a bomb or an airplane can do, a night manager at Jack-in-the-Box, working with his wife and daughter, can undo. And then some.