The Morning Discussion

On the way to school this morning we saw a cat that had been run over.  It was not a pretty sight.  But, it did spur on a conversation about death, life and the meaning in between.  It use to freak me out when something simple would turn into a deep philosophical conversation, but as the years have passed I am able to roll with it.

The cat started a conversation about whether or not it is ever better to be dead than alive.  Is there ever an instance where you can justify killing yourself.  Yep, really a dead cat on the side of the road started this conversation.  My fourth grader and my second grader debated this for several minutes.  I got to infuse a bit of my thoughts on the subject in the end.  It turned into a religious conversation and the value God puts on life.  All before 9 AM.

We dropped Molly off, and as we started toward the boy's school, Zach commented on the time.  9:11 AM.  This started a conversation about September 11, again.  Tying the life and death conversation from earlier in the morning with September 11, Zach commented about how he often ponders the meaning of life.  Yep, he is in second grade and trying to figure out why he is here.  This lead to a conversation about people who have died and come back (referenced the book Heaven is for Real).  This lead to a discussion about whether or not it is ok to try and convince other people your beliefs are right.  We arrived at school just as I concluded with what I believed the meaning of life to be.  It is now 9:15 AM.  Thank God I had coffee this morning!