Monday, July 31, 2006

Why Is There War?

This AM, my four year old got a hold of the front page of the local paper before me. Usually, that is not so troubling. But these days, you never know what is going to be the cover picture. This AM, there was a picture of a rescue worker holding a dead child amidst some bombed out rubble in Lebanon. My son asks, "What's that?" I explain. He says, "Daddy, why is there war?" I reply, it's when people can't find a way to live together peacefully. Unsatisfied, he asks the same question several times. How would you explain this to a four year old?

1 comment:

isabelita said...

Whoa. One of those terrible hard questions. I'm trying to remember whe our son first realized he was mortal. I know I was about 8, and woke up in the middle of the night absolutely terrified. I think our kid was younger.
It's hard enough to explain the death of a family pet. When I taught second grade, we ahd a pet mouse die, and the kids had a funeral, wrote eulogies, and seemed to take it in.
But death of innocents on a large scale...'spike, I'm 55, and I still can't wrap my brain around it.
Fuck htis country's "leaders." I blame them for just about everything.