Last week, my son's class was acting up. The kids weren't behaving as they should have been when they usually line up to head out of the classroom.

The teachers were chagrined. "This is very rude behavior and we expect better of you," the teaching assistant said. "I guess we've been letting things slide without too many consequences, but now we will have to start in on some discipline measures."

The kids settled down...except for the little guy. He started in on the weird slurping sounds he makes when he's trying to be the tick-tocking crocodile in Disney's Peter Pan, and the teacher called him on it.

"Now, son, that's very rude and disrespectful. Do you really think that's right? Do you do such things behind our backs?"

The little guy thoughtfully stopped and meekly said, "Not this time."

Why do I now feel like he channeled some of our local officials as of late?

Maybe it's all about the full moon, especially now that I've gotten a load of this. As if things aren't weird enough...Update, 10-25: I spoke too soon. If this IS true, the DA's liable to be tarred and feathered and run outta town. Are we all certain Halloween is NEXT week?

___________________

Flashback to No-Cal, mid-1970's.

A child and his mom are trolling the aisles in the grocery store. The child has been learning about death, and he decides to begin what his mom, years later, will term his "first actuarial query". Seeing an elderly lady going the other way down the aisle, he asks her, "Are you old?"

"Well, yes, I guess so," the lady answers.

Then, the child asks the question that makes his mom want to fall right through the floor and disappear.

"When are you going to die?"

Much to the lady's credit, she answers, "When I'm good and ready."

Morals of the stories: kids will always come out with stuff that makes you want to cringe. It's been going on for generations, and it will always be going on for as long as human beings are walking the earth.

And, from the very beginning, we are all trying to figure out some universal truths. We grasp at life and try to understand its end, and we struggle to one degree or to many, many degrees with everything in-between. Our need to compare and contrast, even to horrifically absurd proportions, is one way of trying to make sense of the world. There are times when this kind of analysis simply needs to be suspended until everyone is out of danger and the perils have passed. This is one of those times.

Afterwards, we can talk all we want.

When we're good and ready.

10-25: However, it seems some are always ready to think the worst. We really can't do much about this kind of speculation except to keep railing against it as best we can and keep plugging along in our lives, no matter how insane things are. Keep telling the truth, even when, all about you, others might see you as a Cassandra.