Have you ever been in Whole Foods where they provide self-serve free samples? Well, as I was making my first trip around the store--apples, plums, gouda cheese--I happened by the potato chip tray. All previous free samples had the toothpick as the utensil of choice. But the chip tray sported a spoon. You know the kind. The one chained to the sample table. The one designed to allow precisely 1 chip to balance in the bowl and if you go for more you lose the whole load. The spoon that 1500 previous samplers have touched. I do not use those spoons! So I simply reached in and grabbed a chip. From behind me I heard this sweet little voice say, "You didn't use the spoon."
I turned and saw this innocent little 4-year old looking up at me. She looked me in the eye and simply said again, "You didn't use the spoon." And she said it in a tone that betrayed neither judgment nor righteous indignation. To her it was simply an observation of something done incorrectly.
What could I say? She was absolutely right. What I did say was, "You are right. Thank you. Next time I will use the spoon." (Thanks to her, there will be no next time. I do not use those spoons.)
By this time her mother had pretended as long as she could that she did not hear her daughter calling out a complete stranger for his improper etiquette. She turned and gave a sheepish smile. So I said, "Don't you just love honesty without fear. Where does it go?"
And that's my question for me and for you. Honesty without fear: As we grow older, where does it go?