Remembering the reason for the season

Dash and I stopped in Whole Foods to pick up a case of soy milk drink boxes for our upcoming travel.  The store didn't have his preferred flavor ("Very Vanilla") in stock, but they did have buckets of Feed 100 bags for $25.  I've been looking for some small, appropriate gift for Petunia's third grade teacher, a tree-hugging surfer dude.  The bag!  It'd be perfect, I thought, as I put it into the little cart Dash was pushing.  Here's what ensued:

Dash: "Mama, what's that thing?"

Mama: "It's a reusable grocery bag."

Dash: "No it's not."

Mama: "Actually, it is.  It is a very special reusable grocery bag, actually."

Dash: "Why is it special?"

Mama: "When you buy this grocery bag,100 hungry school children in a faraway country called Rwanda get some food."

Dash (stunning Mama): "Rwanda is in Africa!"

Mama: "Wow, dude, I didn't know you knew that!  Cool!  Rwanda is in Africa, and there are lots of hungry children there, children who don't have healthy food and clean water like we do.  So when I buy this bag for Petunia's teacher, some of those kids -- a hundred of those kids -- will get some food.  It's magic!"

Dash: "It's a magic bag!" ... pausing, then walking over to the bucket to pick out two more bags tied with green bows ... "And now we have to get this one for my teacher Meg, and this one for my teacher Liz, because they will like to have magic bags to help Africa too!  For Christmas!  From me!"

Well, I was going to bake them cookies, but how in the world could I say no to that?!  We bought three bags, and the store rang a bell -- then announced over a loudspeaker that a three year-old boy just bought bags that'll feed 300 school children in Rwanda.  I don't get choked up often, but I admit that I'm still a bit tearful thinking about Dash's unbridled joy at picking up those two extra bags for his teachers.  And it's not lost on me that he didn't ask for one for himself, either.  I work pretty hard trying to teach my children how to be socially conscious, caring citizens of the world -- and on these days when I can see one of them understanding how it all works, it's like getting a big fat bonus check.  So no more cookies from my house... I think that Dash has set a standard that we'll keep up over the years.  As the Guv pointed out, everyone wins: kids in Africa get fed, teachers get a present, kids in my house feel good about doing good, and there's no messy kitchen for he and I to clean up!  A magic bag, indeed.