Look at the Cute Little Cactus!

About 15 years ago, when I was visiting my father and his wife at their Norcross address, I happened upon a prickly pear cactus that was growing in his yard. (We are currently finishing up our plants unit in school.) I exclaimed, "Look at the cute little cactus!" It had extremely small spines, which resembled a type of fur. Now this one leaf had fallen off, and feeling sorry for it, I picked it up. Dad said to me, "I wouldn't do that, Glenn." Ignoring his senile, demented and obviously insensitive advice, I began to pet it. "Poor little cactus fell off the bush. Awww!" Again, Dad had to interject with his unwanted and unsolicited advice. "I wouldn't do that, Glenn."

I stated the obvious to the oblivious when I told him, "I am not getting pricked. See? I am petting it with the grain. Dad just shook his head. Well, a little while went by and I put the cactus, which was doomed to die because it was seperated from it's stem, back where I had found it and joined my family inside the house. After a while, my hands began to itch. How odd, I thought. Then I looked down at my hands.

Millions of tiny, almost microscopic cactus spines had embedded themselves all over my hands. In the creases between my fingers, everywhere. "What's the matter, Glenn?" dad asked.

"Ummm.... do you have a pair of tweezers?" I asked. It was then that this evil parental smile spread across his face.

"Oh, you got stuck??? Noooo!!!!!" He could barely contain himself from expressing such glee at being right. My pain meant nothing whatsoever. He had asserted his wisdom (intelligence), I had asserted my folly (idiocy), and we both knew it. I could do nothing but wait upon his benevolence as only he knew where the God forsaken tweezers were in that house.

The moral of the story is, listen to your parents. They know better!