Bad things happen

My wife and I are trying to teach our 4yearold son the difference between right and wrong. Out of nowhere came the perfect example of wrong.

Last week, my wife walked onto campus (she's a middle school teacher) with her fairly new iPhone. That phone had been one of the single biggest treats she'd received since . . . since marrying me. That's not true. Her biggest treat takes place daily when she comes home to see me.

In class, my wife tucked her phone away out of sight, and while her students were up and about, someone lifted the device. My wife went into a panic when it went missing. At first she thought she'd misplaced it. The class helped her look for the phone, but they had no luck.

My wife's aide said he believed the phone had been stolen because he had earlier seen it sitting where my wife said she placed it. The news of the stolen iPhone spread throughout the school like the overpowering scent of cologne and perfume when the bell rings and students make their way from class to class.

The school's principal, who learned of the crime instantly, was as upset about the stolen phone as my wife, and even students my wife didn't know took offense to the theft and were trying to find the criminal the whole day.

My wife teaches a few troubled students. Some of these kids have been moved from school to school due to bad behavior and problems with the law. These same kids were greatly concerned about the theft and immediately got on their cellphones and put out "be on the lookout" calls to their networks of people who might be able to find and "apprehend" the thief and the iPhone. We're told that those notices made it to MySpace pages all over the Internet within five minutes of the APBs (allpoints bulletins).

Person after person tried to cheer up my wife with "words of wisdom." They said things like, "That's the way of the world," "People are people" and "Bad things happen."

Now, how helpful are any of those "words of wisdom"? I'd like to know, in the history of cheering people up, if those phrases ever provided any help or any additional wisdom to any being on Earth. I'm guessing there've been no positive responses to those comments but maybe a few fat lips and maybe even matching black eyes.

By the end of the day, one of the campus staff members had put up his own reward money to be given to the person who found or returned the phone. My wife, who was so upset that someone had stolen from her, later couldn't hide her smile when so many people came to her side- just like the way George Bailey's friends came to his side at the end of "It's a Wonderful Life."

But even after all the help, still no results. And my wife was sad again.

That night, my wife and I tried to explain to our son what had happened to Mommy's iPhone, and we tried to teach him the difference between right and wrong. The person who took the phone, we said, was wrong for stealing it. The right thing for the thief to do, we said, would be to return the phone.

Our son asked when Mommy would get her phone back, now thinking that the person who took the phone was just sharing it for too long. We told him that the phone would probably never come back.

The boy became very sad just like his mommy, and he asked why someone would take something that's not theirs and never return it.

My wife and I looked at each other, speechless. Then, feeling like we had to say something, we said, "That's the way of the world. People are people and bad things happen."

My wife began to cry again. Our son went into his room and found his toy cellphone to give to his mom.

"You can have my phone, Mommy," he said. "It's the right thing to do."

My wife's frown turned into a smile.

E-mail Michael Picarella at michael.picarella@gmail.com or go to www.myspace.com/ picarellaworks.