“I will be sweet… with you”

For the fifth year in a row Vancouver received The Economist’s rating as the world’s #1 most livable city. As a homeboy, I’m a little flattered by this, although I know we have much work to do to make it even better.

I live in Vancouver’s Eastside, and I can’t think of a better place in the city to live, work and raise a family. We have a porch facing our street, which on warm summer evenings is a great place to kick back and watch the world go by.

I mean this figuratively as well. A sizable sampling of global cultures wander down my street, as this is a particularly diverse community. Tonight I just listened as a father with a young son about 9 years old tried to navigate English, while jumping back to his native Spanish in order to teach his son what he was saying.

I guess his son was tired or impatient like most kids around bedtime. While walking past my house I heard the father say this:

Tonight…
I will be sweet
(then he mutters some Spanish, presumably a translation)
with you.
You (he continues)
will be sweet
with me.

I was charmed by this choice of word, sweet. He could have said “nice” or “kind,” but clearly he just wanted his boy to be a good kid for the last couple of blocks home.