These were ambitious young people, and their ambition was this: find a supermarket trolley, take said trolley, put one of their party in the trolley, then drive the trolley to the nearest Star Mart and into that Star Mart, wherein to cause mischief and buy pies.
Being entrepreneurial and aspirational young people, they had succeeded with the first elements of their ambition: they had the supermarket trolley and securely ensconced in it was one of their party. Now, to get into the Star Mart (wherein to cause mischief and buy pies).
But a problem presented itself: the lip of the pavement into the the Star Mart’s sliding door was too high. The young woman steering the supermarket trolley tried repeatedly to push it up and over that lip with her companion inside but the lip was too high for her to achieve success alone.
I watched this. And I realised I could do one of three things
a) nothing, and let these hard working young kiwis fail,
b) go and cause the mischief and buy the pies on their behalf and give them the pies, but that would rob them of the sense of achievement and personal success
c) I could give them a handup, not a handout. And this I did: as the young woman pushed with all her might I gave but a little lift to the front of the trolley and, suddenly, they were inside. Their ambition was achieved, and it didn’t need a nanny to do it for them, it just needed a little handup.
There’s a lesson in this for us all.
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