And a World of Fears

"You know, Kadra's dad grew up in this town, Emma." I mentioned to my 5 year old as we drove into downtown. We were visiting my parents in Woodland Park. Emma was sitting in the back seat of the car, seemingly engrossed with her grocery list she had been duplicating from the one my wife had given me.

She murmured a response, as if I was distracting her train of thought.

"Yep, it sure is a small world. Isn't it?" I continued.

It was as if I had snapped her out of a trance, but instead of clucking like a chicken, she became Socrates.

"You know, it really is a small world," she began. "We think it is a big world, but us humans, we are just animals."

Even if I had some sort of response, I would not of been able to get a word into her run-on philosophical declaration.

"And humans have to just kill some animals because we don't like them. Humans are just animals. Other animals think their world is small, but it is really big. We know it is big. They just think it is small. And we have to just kill some animals, and they just don't know." The rambling was much longer than this, and I know I am losing a great deal of the detail, just a few days after it happening, however, it was very profound. Vague enough to insinuate countless meanings, but deep enough to blatantly state a specific argument. She made me so proud.

I believe that our discussions of the food chain, predators, carnivores, who eats who, and the like instigated this flood of thought from my sweet little girl. Of course, maybe the thought of the song, "It's a Small World" might subconsciously stir aggressive behavior of even the very young.