This has been a tough week. Thanksgiving has given many a bout of anxiety, and possibly indigestion. The fallout from the election is still in full swing, and a lot of people were expected to sit with family members and their “views” while shoveling pie into their mouths, fake grinning all the while.

While I was on a photo shoot on Wednesday, a conversation between mother and daughter took place that I feel compelled to share. We were loading photo gear and children into a minivan, and the oldest daughter, thirteen, was being asked to come down to the beach to help wrangle the younger kids. This may be the most honest conversation to take place this Thanksgiving:

Mother: Will you please come? You’re such a help.
Daughter: I came last time.
Mother: I’ll pay you five dollars to come.
Daughter: Do you think five dollars is a lot of money, Mom?
Mother: Ten dollars, I’ll pay you ten dollars... and my undying appreciation.
Daughter: I don’t need that.

Joking aside, this exchange touches on some truths about us humans. We are so resource driven it is shocking sometimes. I really don’t think it’s a bad thing, it’s in our nature, and as we age we can use this drive constructively. It was in my nature from a young age.

When I was four, I performed a potentially death inducing stunt for a pound. I had wanted to ride my bike down the steep ramp at our local skate park in London for months. All the big kids did it, and I was eager to graduate from the ranks of toddlerhood. This ramp was a sort of rite of passage for me, my mum realized this and had tried all kinds of reassurance and encouragement to help me. I would ride around in circles at the top and then ride away defeated.

My angst must have been intolerable. One day she simply offered me money to do it. I took off, and immediately rode down the ramp without incident. If I’d fallen it would have been bad. Really bad. It was a concrete skatepark, not the smooth concrete they make skateparks out of now, the type that will grind you up and relieve you of chunks of flesh if you fall on it. My mum weighed up her child’s safety with her child’s happiness... happiness prevailed. That tells you something about mothers, who I am very grateful for, by the way.

For the record, even at thirteen, I would have caved at five bucks. Jaysa, you should have taken the ten.