Lifetimes

Will has entered into a philosopher's dream discussion as he starts to question and wonder about death. And how poignant that it was when he was with his dad that he first started the discussion. I think he started by wishing he could be an adult. Somehow this morphed into a discussion about death. I'll have to ask Paul for a recap but it really shook him up. I think for Paul that this was a pivitol moment in parenthood when he realized that Will would experience the death of someone that he loves someday and how hard that would be for him.

So somewhere in these weeks I pulled out my trusty children's book about death... everything has a lifetime, etc... and read it to Will. We talked with him when things came up as we read it and every once in awhile we can tell that he is still milling things over because he'll come up with yet another question. Apparently tonight he asked his dad about whether children die. Then he asked whether adults die and when exactly. He had his dad count to twenty so that he could get sense for how long that might be until he is 20 and then he had him count to 70 and 80 or so to get a sense for how long it might be for someone to live and die a more complete lifetime. He also said something about how it seems that people would not like to die. What next?

On a lighter note, I yelled at Will recently. I know I shouldn't have done it and believe me, it was fully warranted because he was being a complete stinker. I find it interesting that Paul has never yelled or even had the slightest inclination to yell. Obviously we can see here who is the better parent. But anyway, since I yelled Will has been informing us both that the minute he sees a police officer he is going to tell him that I yelled at him. He is absolutely shocked that I would do something like this and is convinced that I'm going to get a citation. The funny thing is that he says all this with such conviction that I really am concerned should we ever cross paths with the police.