Alligator or Crocodile?

"Look, Dad, it's an alligator!"  Victoria told me.

"Are you sure that it isn't a crocodile?"  I asked.

"No, Dad, it's an alligator," my four year old daughter assured me emphatically.

I looked closely at the reptile.  I usually can identify the difference between the two similar (but different) species based on the signs on the zoo exhibits, but I know that there are differences other than the signs.  Unfortunately, it is really hard to tell the difference with animal crackers.

Of course, animal crackers seem to inspire a whole lot of questions for me.  Sure, it's a penguin, but which species of penguin is it (truly identifying the genus can be challenging, even for trained zoologists)?  Are there certain varieties of animal crackers that are endangered (and how can we protect them)?  And most of all, can vegans eat animal crackers (insert slippery slope argument here)?

None of this detracts from my ability to enjoy animal crackers or helps me to enjoy them better.  Which is too bad, because I really don't derive much pleasure from a package of animal crackers.

Quite simply, joy is learning to get pleasure from the smallest blessings in our lives.

It is a blessing if your spirit can lift with the tiny things of this life.  It seems as though as humans age it takes more and more to give them the same enjoyment that they once received from something as simple as an ice cream cone or a box of animal crackers.

So it is that I pray, not for bigger blessings or more thrills, but a child like sense of joy.  I want to feel happiness when I open a box of animal crackers, whether it contains alligators, crocodiles, or neither.