If you give a mouse a cookie...

When I was a child, I had this book called, "If you give a mouse a cookie." It went something like, "If you give a mouse a cookie, he'll ask for a glass of milk. If you give him a glass of milk, he'll ask for a straw..." and so on and so forth. It's a cute story.

When I think about the premise of the story, there are two interpretations that revolve around one basic concept -- the desire for more.

First, there's the interpretation that's positive -- the desire for more can mean that an individual constantly strives for self-improvement -- doing things better or more efficient or in ways that better meet one's needs or the needs of others.

Second, though, there's the interpretation that's negative -- the desire for more can mean that an individual is never satisfied -- greed kicks in and the obsession of wanting more and more and more just to have more and more and more overwhelms one's life.

I was reminded of this childhood story at work today. If I were to rewrite the story, I'd call it "If you give a soccer player a cookie." On occassion, I like to bring baked goods into my office for my athletes. It's a selfish tradeoff -- I like to bake and want to perfect my baking skills without having to eat millions of goodies so the athletes eat them for me. But sometimes it appears that the more I bake them treats of goodness, the more greedy they become. Once the goodness is gone, there's the immediate questioning regarding when there will be more and more. Um, I do other things than work and bake cookies, thank you very much.

So today, the last cookie was eaten and the questioning of more began. At first today, I was a little mad when they started asking for more and implied I should go home and turn the oven to 375 degrees immediately-- I felt slightly underappreciated in my efforts -- that despite my kitchen commitments, there would never be enough and more would always be needed. Now I know most of them appreciate the efforts, but I could not help but feel slighted.

Then I started to think some more. And I wondered if this was part of a larger problem -- the fact that most of these students have grown up in a time period where instant action and immediate gratification is all they know.

Is it their fault that they are somewhat proned to be greedy?

Is it their fault that they want things immediately and want others to do things for them when they ask for it to be done?

Is it their fault they have no idea what it means to have patience and wait for things?

Is it their fault they are not used to delaying gratification?

Or, are they just the products of the modern, technologically-induced instant-return world in which we currently exist?

So many questions. So little answers. I've had enough for one day. And I think a cookie sounds pretty good right about now.