Speed Reading

One day, as we drove down the highway towards "The Big City," we passed many billboards, as usual. Out of the blue, my dutiful, responsible, rule-following 13-year-old daughter says, "You know, when I was little (before I could read), I thought it must be a lot of pressure to read those signs."

Puzzled, I asked, "What signs? Why?"

She elaborated, "The billboards. Because they had so many words on them, and in such big letters, I thought they must be very, very important and you had to read them as you passed; that everyone who could read had to read all of them, each billboard, as they passed by each day, just like the road signs. It made me glad I couldn't read, because I didn't want all that responsibility."

Oh, if that were true; that they actually held important messages, such as, "Don't forget to pick up eggs!" "You left the iron on!" "Have an amazing day!" or "Your husband is cheating on you," instead of the car dealership and restaurant messages, one after the other, so emphatically plastered there for months on end.

I love the way little kids think.