A reminder of things I find troubling in our world.

My wife and I, and of course the baby, had a little date this weekend. Since not everything is at your fingertips in rural Arkansas, we made the 45 minute trek to Red Lobster in Ft. Smith. We entered and were seated with a little stand to hold Isaac's car seat, and we ordered a margarita and an amaretto sour. My wife and I are 24 and 23 respectively and most people say we look younger, so we got carded as we usually do. Being carded typically frustrates me. Not because they do it, but because they usually make some kind of comment like, "Take it as a compliment," or "You'll appreciate it when you get older." Ha Ha.

This time however carried an added annoyance. Why is it that it is not a big deal for us to have a child at our age, but it is have a drink? Say they thought we were under 21, which they obviously thought was possible, (yes, I know they are supposed to card anyone who looks under 27 or whatever, but that is only because it is possible that they are under 21.) no one batted an eye at us having a child, but of course it would be the end of the world for someone underage to have a drink. You also have to remember that this is the bible belt, so I am sure there were plenty of people in there who think having a drink at any age will take you straight to Hell (and if you've never been in the bible belt, no, I'm not exaggerating).

I am sure that this was not nearly this complex to anyone else. I am sure that our waiter never even thought about these things, but that is essentially my point. If someone is responsible enough to care for the life and soul of another human being, one who is absolutely 100% reliant on them, shouldn't they be responsible enough to have a drink of alcohol? The problem is not that our waiter doesn't believe this. The problem is that there are so many people who do both, but are far from responsible enough for either.

It is simply sad to me that we see so much about keeping young people safe from drinking and smoking, but so little about keeping them chaste.