Cole's Moral Compass

I have a plethora of blogging material after the weekend in KC, but I'll choose a short and simple topic before I'm off to work today.

At a very young age, we could all tell that Alex had a strong sense of right and wrong. And still does. (Knock on wood.) Of course, we'd like to think it had everything to do with our parenting skills, but I'm not so sure that Disney didn't have a hand in it somehow. "Sure you can watch the Lion King again!"

But I've worried a bit about Cole, catching him in a few lies now and then. But yesterday, my heart was comforted by a little incident at the rest area. We had stopped somewhere before St. Joseph to quench our thirst. At this particular rest area, the vending machines were protected by locked gates, most likely to deter vandals. As we stood in front of the locked gates choosing our drinks of choice, Cole stated, "This just doesn't seem right!"

"What do you mean, Cole?"

"I don't think we should be doing this. It's like we could go to jail" Obviously the iron gates were a bit intimidating.

"Oh, Cole. It's okay. We're paying for these sodas."

"But it just doesn't seem right."

He did take his pop, but only after assuring him it was okay. It reminded me of an incident that occurred a long time ago as my friend Lyn and I were tracking our way home from college one weekend. We stopped at a rest area to grab a snack. I was visiting with her about something as I was selecting a package of licorice. When I reached down to grab my Nibs, I pulled out a bag of pot. At first, I exclaimed, "Oh my gosh! The licorice is bad. No! It's pot!"

"Put it back!" Lyn told me with the same level of excitement.

So I did, but my heart was pumping. We got in the car and began to pull away. Only to see a state trooper pulling away from the rest area. Well, my heart told me what to do next. I waved the cop down and told him about the incident. I explained, "My finger prints would be on that bag and I don't want to get in trouble."

For some reason, he appeared to be holding back a smile. But at least I never got in trouble. I hope Cole would do the same thing. I think he would -- his moral compass seems to be headed in the right direction.