I watch a lot of TV to learn a lot of things. I tried tuning in to the youth channels and found out that, hey, youth is cool. They got something that I wished I had: a cool today, gone tomorrow type of attitude. Like, who cares? What I do today – will I still care about it tomorrow?

Is life that fleeting or is it that eternal youth only lasts a year or two? Perhaps the networks have it right for a change. What is today is today, tomorrow always comes a bit too late for yesterday’s news and today’s catch is always fresh but has a good chance of smelling bad if not discarded as hastily as the next tidbit on the talking head’s teleprompter line.

As the television show wore on it focused on a specialty program, which I thought a bit odd because it showcased a rare scenario: wine for kids. But I was in for a surprise. The kids were full of questions, like, how did the wine come in that colour? Why can’t it be in a can? Why can only adults drink it? And so on.

It taught me that children can learn that wine is something to be revered and used in moderation. As well, the process of making the wine appealed to the little scientist in some of them. Many children had no idea that wine was made from grapes. I popped a surprise quiz question just to show that not everything is as obvious as wine from grapes: What are Rice Krispies made of?

For several long minutes, the barrage of answers came flying back, none of them anywhere close to the truth. One little tyke somehow had equated everything to be a derivative of spaghetti (or sgabetti) and another was convinced that it was a cousin of cheese sticks.

Wrong, I declared. Rice Krispies are made from rice, prompting an astonished bellow of disbelief came from the dinner table, forks and

spoons raised up in defiance to the absolute answer. One kid grimaced and declared that he didn’t like rice and therefore the thing he had in his mouth could not possibly be made of something so gruesome while another rolled her eyes and scratched her curly tussled hair, until a glow or revelation came to her puzzled face. Aha, rice… I see.

The little boy pointed to his glass of orange juice and stated rather rightly that it was made from oranges. The other declared that orange juice came from a frozen can and a dispute ensued: the can or the orange?

I stepped in and ordered them to continue with their breakfast. The topic of wine was still on the boob tube and the topic of drinking wine during a meal was brought up. The little boy, with his wide eyes and pointing finger flustered out that there was a little boy drinking wine with the adults at a dinner table. “How come we aren’t doing that too?”

Good question. You got me, I quickly thought. How do you answer that without creating some ripple effect in 10 years, forever damaging some bright kid’s future with some misconception?

I replied that because there isn’t enough good drinking water to go around for everyone they have to drink wine or else they will go thirsty. An acknowledging sigh of relief came out from the kids; they were so glad that they had water to make their tea and to add to juice concentrates and they felt sorry for those poor children across the ocean.

They both declared that no matter how poor things got, that they would always make sure that water is available to drink and that they wouldn’t have to resort to drinking a poor man’s drink at the dinner table. Wisdom enough for this grown up.