An Inkling of Understanding... May 08, 2008

My sister-in-law has recently decided to raise chickens.  She and my brother-in-law bought a dozen or two different baby chicks, built a really cool hen house in their enormous back yard, and as a result they plan to have lots of fresh eggs to eat and oh yeah, chickens too.  She said that she thinks it's really important to teach your kids where meat comes from so that they respect it and don't waste it.  I really admire her for all of her opinions and think she does an excellent job teaching her little kids.

I'm really different from her though. 

She has a passion for learning about all the important issues of the day and is one of the few people I know who does something about the opinions she has; like buying chickens to raise and kill so her kids will learn about the cycle of life, how precious animals are, and how if we chose to eat them, we should respect them.  Me on the other hand, I like to live in my own little bubble of oblivion.  I get easily frustrated and so incredibly disturbed by the horrible things happening in the world.  I have a hard time even stomaching the nightly news.  Especially the local news, but that might be more because I feel like they are mainly out there to sensationalize the stories of horrible things that happen to people to make a buck rather than to educate the public.  But that's a whole different topic.  Anyway, I have a really hard time wanting to live outside my "bubble" because I feel like it's impossible to know the black and white, right, working solution to most of the world's weighty problems.  The best way I can make a difference is to teach Noah right and wrong and to protect him from the evils of the world that can hurt him.  So, instead of having my own chicken coop I'd rather teach Noah that we are blessed to have more than enough food for our needs and leave it at that.  At least for now.  There will come a time to teach him about the millions of starving, suffering children...but later, not at two.  For now, I'm glad that the dinner on my plate is in no way recognizable as a living, breathing chicken and, unlike the Chinese people I met last summer, I'm glad that it's not staring back at me.  This is why I was a tiny bit horrified and, at the same time, I giggled uncontrollably the other night at dinner when Noah had an interesting inkling of understanding.

We were having fish for dinner.  Coincidentally Noah had been thinking a lot about fish that day.  He has some bath toys that he's been liking to play with in and out of the tub and his favorite is a fishing pole and fish.  It must be that Noah has Disney on the brain lately because, even though his bathtub fish doesn't look at all like Nemo, he calls it Nemo.  Well, we were all there eating dinner and we were trying to coax Noah into eating the fish.  He loves chicken nuggets so I was calling them "fishy nuggets" - yum.  Chris decided to jump right in to the coaxing and said, "Noah, fish!  Like Nemo!"  Pause.  Noah looks down at his plate.  Pause.  Looks back up at us with this bewildered, slightly wronged look on his face.  He got it.  Maybe just a little bit, but he got it.  "Fish.  Dinner.  Nemo.  Mom and Dad, and me (gasp!) eating Nemo.  Is this right?"  "Thanks a lot Daddy" I said, and he hurried off to a meeting he had to go to leaving me with the toddler who needed to eat his "Nemo dinner".  I tried to play it cool.  "It's ok Noah.  (Giggle, giggle.)  It's like when we eat dinosaur chicken nuggets.  Ummm, yummy.  Fish nuggets!"  (Giggle, giggle, GIGGLE, giggle.  You should have seen his face.)  He stuck his fork in a little bit of fish and held it up, "Nemo?". 

If Noah decides to be a vegetarian at least I'll know where it all goes back to.

P.S. Chris here, and for the record, I didn't immediately run off to my meeting and Noah did have some fish.  The face he pulled when I first mentioned Nemo was a hilarious new one I hadn't seen before, though.  Funny and insightful this business of raising a toddler.