Lightbulbs

Sometimes I astound myself. Okay, so it's more often than it probably should be. But anyways.
This morning I was making french toast and thinking about how it kinda blows that the kids get so excited when I buy them a box of cereal to eat becauase 97% of the time we're making pancakes or eggs or something GOOD for them, something that will hold them over. I'm a total geek about it. I was thinking "Man...I would have LOVED to have good breakfast everyday..." and thinking that it sucks that it's IMPOSSIBLE for my kids to know how good they have it (in general) without a contextual field to experience.
Well- DUH! It's the same for LIFE. How can we possibly know how good we have it unless we are faced with the opposite? How can we know what love is unless we know what fear is? Of COURSE our kids can't FEEL how good they have it. BUT does it work to just SHOW them kids and people who have less? Does it? Can they FEEL that? Do the things we do to try to show them help at all?
I wonder.
Everyone has a story. You know? You can pick any person off the street and ask for their story and you'll love that person by the end of the conversation because you will appreciate their story. Know what sucks about that? Our kids are going to have a story too. That means that they're going to see some of the sad, heartbreaking things we've seen, they will do some of the sad, gut wrenching things we've done...I don't like knowing that. I get that it's the only way, and that life is for living, and the only way to live is ALL THE WAY OUT LOUD but...yikes.

So does it work? It "should" work- (ADD are you keeping up with me?)....as a general rule, I think that at some point we can realize that we don't actually have to EXPERIENCE all the horrible shit in order to "get it"....we can remember that people have it worse, and that we're actually unbelievably lucky, and not have to go through it....is it possible to skip experiencing some of the horseshit at all and just know that we have it good? Dunno. HOPE!