Perspective

In the category of putting things in perspective, Joe M of Merit Bound Alley offers the best opening line of a blog post I've read in quite a while:

My daughter is quickly becoming a better source of comedy than my own brain...

That in itself is reassuring. The story touches a familiar theme of how to play with children. But the punchline makes the story worthwhile:

Seeing that I easily had her one raw strength, she wisely decided to wage a mental war on morale. She wrapped her arms around me and yelled, “LOSERS GET HUGS!!!”

I've been thinking about the responsibilities one generation owes the next. For instance, there's a debate among the practitioners of environmental economics as to whether the standard tool of discounting future costs and benefits is, in a sense, shortchanging future generations (a subject for another day). But how could economic methods ever capture the value of a three year old child already wise beyond her years?