Tonight I was the bookstore doing some final bits of holiday shopping. Ok, so it wasn’t the exact *final* final set of gifts, but it was the bulk of them (Godiva chocolates all around for the people who report to me – maybe next year I’ll have to time to shop for something more personal for each one – the women are easy to buy for, but the men are far more challenging – Rebecca suggested boxers for them, which then required a lesson on workplace harassment). A co-worker told me she read an article about gift shopping in airports. She’ll begin next year’s holiday shopping in January and will buy interesting items as she finds them in airports. She’ll figure out who to give them to later. She must frequent a whole different galaxy of airports than I do, because I’m picturing a big closet full of shot glasses, spoons and refrigerator magnets.

Anyway, back to the bookstore. I went into the ladies room and saw a poster on the wall for a Bearenstain Bears-looking children’s book. The book was called America’s Promise and it appeared to be a story about providing kids with the reassurance of security and safety in their lives. I started to read the five values (“promises”) that adults need to make to children. Number 1: caring adults. Sure, no issue with that. Number 2: safe places. Sounds a lot like the support we gave to children after 9/11. Number 3: healthy start. Of course. Number 4: marketable skills. Wait a minute – marketable skills? When did this become an ad for Junior Achievement? And since when do we promise kids that we will provide them with skills, marketable or otherwise? It seems there needs to be some motivation and determination on the part of the child to want to learn the skills. And shouldn’t the individual decide if they want to pursue marketable skills or not? Is it not our inalienable right to pursue a degree in philosophy or 18 century French literature or typewriter repair if we so desire? Number 5: opportunities to serve. Serve whom? Fries with that burger? Does this mean that boomers need to take early retirement to make way for that new crop of MBAs who can’t get jobs? There seems to be a pretty dark agenda here with the makings of a cult. Or then again maybe it was just Christmas shopping crabbiness.

* Title is liberally borrowed from despair.com poster titled "Potential"