"Thanks!"

There's a commercial over here about a kid who is trying to print off a picture of his dog. The basic gist of the commercial is that the little boy needs help with everything... except how to use this technology for printing out this cute picture of a dog. When the man who's been helping him says, "Nice picture", the kid replies, "Thanks!"

Now, this commercial might well be international. It occurs to me that I couldn't even tell you right now what kind of accent they have. But even if you haven't seen this commercial, picture a kid that's about 5 or 6 saying (and really meaning), "Thanks!" It reminds me of my days working in the daycare because you get to to hear the language with a strange kind of impact. When a kid calls you a doo doo head, he means it. Try and think of the first time you heard this horrid insult. Then the first time you used it because you were so incredibly angry. Granted, it starts to lose some meaning over the years as you hear more appropriate terms to express your anger (albeit just as silly). But then you can hear the times when a kid is first learning to say, "Help." Not the scream for assistance in an emergency, but when she is trying to stack these blocks with all her might and they keep falling and you get a look that could melt the Grinch's heart and a weak little, "Help." You somehow know you've never heard a "help" that meant it more than that little girl did.

The same goes for this little kid saying, "Thanks!" He truly means it. I think the world might be a better place if we didn't randomly spit out phrases like thanks, you're welcome, how are you, and sorry. Imagine the power of our language if we spoke like kids first learning what the denotation of words is and using them appropriately. I hope that every thanks I ever say sounds more like this little boy than like a former cashier who was paid to say please, thank you, and come again to every person who entered the store.

Or this commercial just had really good casting. You know, whichever.