The gift of Life

More often than I would like the topic of death comes up in conversations with kids.

Questions like "Acha..! when I am 30 years old will you be dead?"
or
"If amma dies will you get married again?"
"No"
"Then who will take care of us?"
or
it's followup from Nishanth "What if acha dies first?"
or
"When you are dead will you ever come back?"

It is probably their attempt at trying to understand what death really means.

To some degree I feel we should expose the kids to the realities of life rather than shield and protect them from it. When I was growing it was not uncommon to see people suffering, getting beaten, adults fighting in streets and so on. So as kids we were brought to believe that everything in the world is not always fun and play. There is a dark side to human beings that we can fall into if we are not careful enough. Being in a developed country the kids have a lot more immunity to such realities and hardships of life.

These thoughts came to the forefront recently from two of my activities....

I have been reading a book titled "A long way gone - Memoirs of a boy solder". It is the true story of Ishmael Beah who finds his innocent childhood transform to that of a solder in the fighting in Sierra Leone. It depicts how loving humans can flip into being beasts. Reading this book at bed time would definitely give you a sleepless night.

I also spent some time watching the PBS program - frontline titled The Quake about the realities in Haiti just after the quake, human suffering and survival are the key elements. It makes you realize that when it comes to survival we are no different than any other animal on this planet.

I do hope the kids realize all the good things they have and are thankful for it.