i've always wanted to be a mermaid princess...

...thanks maddie!

i had coffee with my friend jami this morning and she brought her daughter madison. jami and i used to work together and hung out all the time but when i left the job i like to refer to as hell on earth, she and i sort of lost touch. she's a busy business professional, wife and mother to a very precocious 8 year old. so when she showed up for coffee this morning with maddie i knew things were going to be fun. :) jami and i sat rapidly talking...telling the condensed versions of stories...trying to catch up on everything that had been going on with each of us in the last 3 months. maddie had brought her hello kitty notebook and as we talked, she was rapidly writing. after about a 15 minutes she tapped jami on the shoulder and presented her with a story she'd written. the story involved two mermaids...aptly named jami and shannon. they were hanging out under the sea..playing in the wreakage and talking. one day they got in a fight because they couldn't decide who had to stay just a mermaid and who got to be the mermaid princess. her story continued on...describing the fight and what words were exchanged. ultimately it was decided that since they were both just cool mermaids, neither better than the other, they could BOTH be mermaid princesses and so they were and they stayed friends forever, ruling under the sea.

i don't know why i liked her story so much. but i keep thinking about it as i go through the rest of my day. maybe it's because an 8 year old can see so clearly what so many adults have trouble realizing. that all people are just people...nobody better than the other. it's as simple as that. if everyone could just approach each other with the understanding that the person in front of you is dealing with their own crap and comes from their own life experiences maybe we wouldn't all be so quick to judge or categorize. maybe we could all be mermaid princesses.