Perception is Everything

My dad married a German woman. I mean, literally from Germany. Eventually she moved over to the USA and they got married. She also has a 10 year-old son from a previous marriage. Germans, Europeans, are very different from Americans. They live on a completely different level from us. I don't think one way of life is better or worse than the other way of life, but they are different. I had to laugh though, when I found out how different our perceptions are of what a soldier does.

One evening the son was marching back and forth across their living room.

"What's he doing?" my dad asked.

"Oh, he's playing soldier. He's a soldier," the wife answered.

My dad started laughing.

"What?" the wife asked.

"Well, if he were an American boy playing soldier he would be shooting at the enemy," my dad said. "It's funny that he thinks all soldiers do is march. No wonder every time someone is in trouble they call America."