October 4, 2011
Question Time
Most nights with my kids after we read books we have question time. Question time is an open forum. The kids have to keep their eyes closed and they can ask any question about anything. It's the favorite part of my day.
Last night:
Gabriel: Will you die if you don't have a brain?
Me: Yes. You have to have a brain and a heart to live.
Gabriel: What about other things like stomaches and arms and eyeballs.
Me: You can live without arms and eyeballs and even a stomach, but life is harder.
Gabriel: What if you have no arms and no legs and no eyeballs?
Me: Then you would need a lot of help.
Gabriel: What about a sore?
Me: A sore? Like if you're leg is sore?
Gabriel: No inside your body.
Me: A sore inside your body, like if you are sick?
Gabriel (frustrated with me):Not a sore, a soua.
Me: I don't understand.
Gabriel: You know a soua that makes you a person.
Me: Do you mean a soul?
Gabriel: Yes. That word is hard for me you know.
[Gabriel knocked out his two front teeth last year and has a problem with hard Rs and words that end in L]
Gabriel: Do you have to have one to live?
Me: Everyone has a soul.
Gabriel: But what if you didn't have one would be a vampire or zombie or something?
Me: Vampires and zombies aren't real, but that's what we imagine people would be like if they lost their souls, but we all have souls even if we forget sometimes.
Gabriel: Where is it? Is it in your head or your belly?
Me: It's just part of all of you. It's what makes you you.
Gabriel: How?
Me: A soul is what lets you feel what other people are feeling. It's what lets you think about other people instead of yourself. People with good souls are kind. Real kindness is hard.
Gabriel: Not for me.
[silence...]
Gabriel: Even Darth Vader had a soul, you know.
Me: I know. Even terrible people have souls, but sometimes they shrink or are hard to find.
[silence...]
Gabriel: What about parrots? Do they have them? Parrots are confusing.
Me: Some people think only humans have souls, but I think animals have them too.
Gabriel: Even parrots? Because sometimes they just say mean things all day.
to this site
10/04/11 12:38 PM
Paula / Hamburg said...
How wise children can be!
Our son was especially wise and poetic with high fever. Once he said to me in the middle of the night after a fever dream: "Mom, I dreamt I was inside of you". "Aha, what did it look like?" "It was all red inside and then I saw a little white feather, that was your soul!"
10/05/11 04:17 PM
Elliott said...
Answer: Yes. Parrots do have soul:
http://dziga.com/after-jerry/
11/03/11 04:05 PM
Zana said...
Too cute. Especially on the Darth Vader part.