Gratification

I attended a wedding recently. After the wedding there was a lovely reception complete with cake and dancing. But mostly there was a lot of time. A couple hundred guests attended - some I knew, many I didn't. I've known a small group of people there for about 30 years and I'm not that old!

As I was mixing and mingling I ran into a gal from my church who also happened to be a Sunday School teacher for my kids back when they were in Kindergarten. She was coming at me with focus in her eyes. She needed to tell me something...something important.

It seems that in the church service a few weeks back she spied my son being chivalrous and was so impressed that she felt compelled to share all the details with me. It went something like this -

There was an older woman in sitting in service near the back of the auditorium. She sensed that the service was coming to a close and arose to leave, walker in hand. As she neared the door to exit, my son was waiting to hold the door open for her. He smiled and wished her well before as she departed and then went back to his seat unaware that he was being watched. The onlooking Sunday School teacher was so impressed that an 18-year-old had been paying attention as well as actually made a move to help the older woman.

I think she had a few reasons for telling me about this incident. You see she is the mother of 5 children, four of which are boys, who are all grown up now. She understands that for a boy to attend to the need of another he has to be trained in sensitivity and manners. She remembers my son as being a high energy kid with a big heart. She was pleased to see that energy had channelled itself into productive behaviour. I'm sure she also remembers how nice it was to hear good reports about her boys and wanted to be the bearer of one of those reports to another mother. I don't think a mother ever tires of hearing such tales about her child.

As I listened my sense of pride in my son grew exponentially. He's a good kid (now actually a young adult) and other people think so too. Wikipedia says that gratification is the positive emotional response of happiness in response to a fulfillment of a desire. And what mother doesn't desire to have her child grow up to be this kind of adult?