"Sugar and Spice" - A Child's Kindness

By Stephen C. Schultz

I recall a childhood rhyme that went something like this:

“...sugar and spice and everything nice… that’s what little girls are made of!”

As the father of three daughters and one son, there is no doubt about the truthfulness of that saying.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in San Diego with my family. We were down at Seaport Village, right on the bay, having lunch. It was a beautiful day—sun shining, light breeze—and we were eating on an outside deck. We were engaged in a conversation about what we wanted to do later that day when I noticed my youngest daughter, a fifth grader, was focused on something else.

I turned to see what she was gazing at. She was following the movements of a transient man who had walked up onto the deck and was systematically searching the garbage cans for food. He was looking in each receptacle, reaching in to move the contents around. At one can, his hand came out with a partially eaten sandwich of some kind. He reached back in and grabbed a napkin, carefully wrapping the sandwich in the crinkled paper. He then slowly but deliberately stepped from the deck onto the boardwalk and continued on his way.

My daughter followed his every move until he was out of sight. She then turned to me with a sad look of confusion. The look in her eyes was easy to discern: What did I just see?

This led to a family discussion about homelessness, mental illness, and community services. While she didn’t fully understand the depth of our conversation, she did understand one thing—she wanted to help that man. She asked, “Can I take that man the rest of my lunch?”

The homeless man had moved on, but this seemed to become a theme throughout the rest of our trip. Emma was on the lookout for homeless people she could give food to. She is such a kindhearted little girl filled with “...sugar and spice and everything nice.”