As we were driving home from the local Chinese Buffet, my youngest and I were chatting about the fortunes we just cracked open from our cookies. Mine read "the star of riches will shine on you the beginning of next month", woo hoo, a good one and this one will definitely come true, I just know it. My daughter's said "you could make a name for yourself in the field of medicine." And again because fortune cookies do in fact predict the future, I felt a small tear in my eye at the thought of my little peanut developing a cure for cancer. After I explained what the field of medicine was she, in turn, had the opposite response, instead her reply was, "Noooo, I don't want to do that, I told you I want to be a ballerina teacher "(which would be fine if she had EVER taken a class). As we drove a little further, she piped up again from the backseat, "Mommy next time I make a wish, instead of wishing turn into a mermaid like I always do, I am going to wish that we can be rich." Now, I could go either way here, I could definitely try to plant that seed, describing in detail that becoming a doctor will guarantee her a fortune and all the riches she could want and if she developed a cure, well than the sky's the limit. But instead I took the high road, and went into the "money can’t buy happiness" speech. Giving the ole one, two punch and following it up with sure money is nice and because of it we do have a house and food to eat and a car to drive, but it is how your spend your time, not your money with the people you love that brings you happiness. To that reply she said, "well what if you could buy people in a store? Say all of our people that died, like my great, great grandmother and my great, great grandfather. God gives them a little surgery, fixes them up and then puts them in a store like the GAP, and we could buy them with our money. Then it would be good to be rich." She definitely had a point, in this case money could buy happiness. Teacher- 0, Young grasshopper- 1
