What you Get

In true "Rainman" fashion, many activities in Ben's life revolve around the same process/procedure every time. For example, eating lunch at Planet Sub. The routine is always the same. We order, we sit at a table (he has a "table" in each Planet Sub in the city), we wait. We eat. Ben uses a million napkins simply because he likes the novelty of pulling them out of the napkin dispenser on the table. Over a month ago (and after the 10th napkin), I said, "Dude. Cool it with the napkins. You're killing trees."

Yesterday, we went to Planet Sub near Tae Kwon Do (table in the back on an elevated platform near the soda machine). The routine was going along as usual when all of the sudden, Ben stopped.

B: Mom? Why do I kill trees when I use lots of napkins.
H: Because trees give us paper and these napkins are made of paper. So, when we use lots of napkins, the logging companies have to cut down more trees (yeah, I said that. I'm a tree hugging hippie, remember?)
B: Oh.
Several minutes pass and I can tell Ben is thinking carefully. We continue to eat and then tilts his head to the side and looks confused
B: So, dogs give us nothing?

As someone who often says seemingly random things out loud, I totally appreciated his inner monologue, which probably went like this:
Trees give us paper.
Cows give us milk.
Chickens give us eggs.
Target gives us toys.
Costco gives us snacks.
Dogs give us........... uh..........hmmmmm.....