When?
"When am I going to die?"
We are not omnipotent, but as parents we are still apparently omniscient. When she says "I don't know," he becomes frustrated. Not really upset, but annoyed with her, because he assumes she does know but is holding back. How could she not know?
I take a crack at it, but side-step the question and talk about predictable and unpredictable things, the idea of predictability in general. Moderate success. Today I was looking for something, and I couldn't find it, and he proclaimed that it was "unpredictable". Close. Not quite, but close.
I don't really want to make the connection at that point, though, because it would be troublesome to merely say that death is unpredictable, as if it really could happen at any moment. Or rather, that its likelihood at any moment is as likely as at any other. But I also don't want to make it too easy and just say that he's going to die many years from now when he's an old man. I think if he were really worried about it, I would, but he's not asking because he's worried, he's asking because he's curious. In which case I think the answer should be a bit more to chew on.
We are not omnipotent, but as parents we are still apparently omniscient. When she says "I don't know," he becomes frustrated. Not really upset, but annoyed with her, because he assumes she does know but is holding back. How could she not know?
I take a crack at it, but side-step the question and talk about predictable and unpredictable things, the idea of predictability in general. Moderate success. Today I was looking for something, and I couldn't find it, and he proclaimed that it was "unpredictable". Close. Not quite, but close.
I don't really want to make the connection at that point, though, because it would be troublesome to merely say that death is unpredictable, as if it really could happen at any moment. Or rather, that its likelihood at any moment is as likely as at any other. But I also don't want to make it too easy and just say that he's going to die many years from now when he's an old man. I think if he were really worried about it, I would, but he's not asking because he's worried, he's asking because he's curious. In which case I think the answer should be a bit more to chew on.