As Thomas gets older, he sure asks harder and harder questions. We seemed to have skipped on from the "why?" stage and hit the philosophical questions of life. How in the world did that happen?
The other night, we were discussing some stories we had read and when one of the main characters had disappeared from the story, he asked where he had gone. When I told him the man had died, he asked who killed him. Well, that didn't quite put his mom's mind at ease.
Who killed him??? What kind of violent expectations does this kid have?I told him that most people do not die because they are killed, they die when they grow old. I listed some examples of people we had known who had died and told him about where they had gone to. But instead of being reassured, he asked me if everyone dies. I told him yes. And then he began to grow upset. Apparently he had assumed that people die when they are killed in a fight and if he was a good enough fighter, then he would never die. But if everyone died when they grew old, then he would definitely die - because soon he would be five years old.
Then he turned to me and defiantly stated that he would not die. And in his most logical voice, he explained...
"Remember when I was in your tummy? Remember when I was born at the hospital?"
I nodded yes.
"Well, I was new then. And Mom... EVERYDAY, I AM STILL NEW!"
To which I said, "You sure are, baby boy. You sure are."
Man! I love that spunk!
