Daisy, who is in 6th grade,  goes to a public school here in San Francisco.  Her school is one of the city's more desirable middle schools (which is probably an oxymoron if you've met many middle schoolers) and consequently has a demographic breakdown that looks like it came out of a diversity brochure.  

The kids at Daisy's middle school put on a talent show last night.   A few kids played instruments, some sang, a couple danced, but the most common act was poetry reading.  What were most of these poems about?  Death.  Gangs.  Violence.  Abandonment.

Sandwiched between two such poems was my darling daughter singing and dancing her way through the entirely cheerful song "All Star" by Smash Mouth.

Although I was horrified to see that so many of my daughter's classmates have had lives touched by so much violence and sadness, I'm delighted that what my daughter chooses to share and perform is made entirely out of sunshine and smiles.  Her incongruity is my delight.