Over the weekend, the wife and I took my stepson to see �Eragon�. He is a big fan of the books and was extremely excited to see the movie (it�s a sub-par amalgamation of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings). Anyway, given the target audience, I assumed there would be a lot of kids there, and I was correct in that assumption. A deep, audible sigh escaped my lips though when I heard I baby start crying right behind us during the previews. Luckily, the mother took the infant out to the lobby and calmed him down. I spent a large part of the movie hoping the baby didn�t start crying again, and to my amazement, it did not. Nonetheless, I was peeved that the baby was there at all- obviously far too young to appreciate ANY movie, not to mention one filled with dragons and monsters. After the movie, as we filed out down the stairs to the exit, we passed the mother holding her infant son. She was beautiful. She had sharp features with an olive complexion, and shoulder length dark hair- she reminded me of a young version of Katherine Keener. On the drive home, I realized that soon after I saw the mother with her infant, I was no longer angry or miffed at their presence in the theater. The more I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that the reason I was no longer angry was because she was so attractive. Had she been on obese woman with missing teeth and a rat�s nest for hair I would still have been angry with her for bringing her child. I have never thought of myself as being susceptible to granting favoritism to attractive people, but I guess I am. I�m sure everyone thinks they are fair minded and even handed with people when it comes to looks, but are we really? I think everyone gets disgusted when they feel as though someone else is granted favor simply because they are attractive, such as when the beautiful blonde gets out of a speeding ticket. I don�t know why it made a difference to me that the mother of that crying baby was beautiful, but it did. I wasn�t capable of staying mad at her. How often do we stop and think if we are guilty of perpetuating the problem, even if it is on a subconscious level?

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