I scream! You scream! We all scream.....

I used to get really sad when I would see a dropped ice cream cone. Both for the waste of the delicious creamy treat and the shattered child, no longer in possession of the delicious creamy treat.
What if the child only had enough money for the one ice cream? How tragic to spend your hard saved pennies only to see them melting on the hot footpath, lapped up by fat ants (fants). Worse still, what if the kid was with his/her mates and now they all stand, ice creams weighing down their porky hands, singing in unison "you've got no ice cream, you can't afford it, your mum's on welfare...." - thank you Eddie Murphy. For some reason, in my head, its always the poor skinny kid whose ice cream ends up on the ground. (I tell you, I probably would've benefited from a few ice creams not making it into my belly!) These thoughts break my heart. All because of the conclusions I draw from this melting sticky mess on the ground.

Today, I took a different approach. I saw the spilt mess and starting to frown, stopped my thoughts from going to this dark world of childhood shattered dreams. What if, work with me for a minute, what if it wasn't a kid who dropped the ice cream? What if it was an undercover cop? This cop has been on this stakeout see, for days - and this day its hot. The car he sits in all day is like an oven. Surely he can treat himself to one ice cream, to take the edge off this slow cooker that is his current place of work.
Then, just as the cop takes his first lick, THE DEAL GOES DOWN! Instantly the cop gives chase, dropping the ice cream without hesitation in hot pursuit of the crim he has been waiting for. Justice. It's worth the wait for when the judge slams down his gavel sentencing this scumbag to 20 years incarceration. The crims mother calls out from the gallery "you can't lock my baby away" ... "well maybe you shoulda taught him some manners lady" says the cop. Case closed.

Yes, I find this much more a rewarding train of thought.