How did the earth get here?

Where did people come from?

Bam, pow, one after the other. Time slowed as the possible answers flowed through my mind. I lean into it, indicating that I'd take this one. It's been a good day and I've got the psychic energy left for this. I can see The Wife from the corner of my eye wondering what I will say. Taking a second, something that I usually forsake and it shows, I tried to line up my thoughts.

There are few questions whose answers are more telling about what you believe and the strength of those beliefs than these, I'm convinced. I'm not thinking that though. We still talk about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny here in a house full of little kids, but she's no longer a baby. I should get this right, it's a parental moment-of-truth. Failure to do so will surely be her spiritual gateway to existential angst, lots of door slamming, and numerous changes of career masked as 'soul-searching'. Best to be treading carefully here.

Tackling the harder question first, we discussed at somewhere above a first-grade level the relevant ideas: How a theory is not a truth, was Man created by God or descended from mudskippers, and the fossil record versus a very special week some 6,000 years ago. None of it was very deep; she's not seven yet, but since she's the oldest, we can still be surprised at her understanding.

The first question was the easier of the two. She's still at the age where it's okay to like what Daddy likes and swirling gas and coalescing nebulae are within my realm of knowledge. I checked "astronomer" as a job interest on one of those standardized tests as a teen, and lo, the girls, they did not flock to me. With this girl though, we found a video online that showed the formation of our Solar system after my basement library failed to show us the picture. Try the new "Google Parenting Tool!"

I'm not so vain that I have to congratulate myself here for being honest with my child. The point is that we get dozens of opportunities every week to influence and teach and for once, I know we got a base-hit. The answer wasn't canned, an ideologue's soundbite, but instead the acknowledgment of how vast the universe really is and that beliefs can and do vary. I've made few more succinct speeches in my life, nor felt better about anything I've written (especially here) than those minutes this evening around our table.

She then asked for another serving of baked beans.

I can't remember the images themselves, as much as the quality of them. There were garish taillights, whirling red sirens, serious men in windbreakers bathed in red and yellow light. There were guns. The TV news graphics fairly screamed from the perimeter of the small screen; "breaking news", "developing story", "break in the case".

Asleep in their Chevrolet Caprice at a rest stop in western Maryland, John Allen Muhammed and Lee Boyd Malvo were captured. They had murdered ten random people and wounded three more, sniper-style, in our area, sparking fear and trepidation at every gas station and parking lot across the region.

Our own developing story, our breaking news, red-headed baby Margaret, arrived on this day on 2002. It was a good day.

Technorati Tag: four

Except maybe me, the Sube is starting to show her age. Presently, the transmission is suffering from "delayed engagement" (I think no one should get engaged at age 6 1/2, but I digress...) and the dealer is telling me it's a $3900 repair or replacement. "Oh, and you need brakes, and a timing belt wouldn't hurt."

We're presently hunkered down considering our options. A terrible napalm accident was considered today. Bollocks to the damn transmission. Almost all of the math favors the repairs, since they still are less than even a single year's total of car payments. Bollocks to transmissions that don't even make it to 100K.

One who won't be walking much longer is the kid. We bought her a bicycle this weekend. Training wheels are on the list for Wednesday shopping and then some bike riding, just in time for Spring Break.

Technorati Tag: on foot

Mommy, your cooking is your art.

Technorati Tag: kids

Some words to remember Father's Day Weekend 2004 by...

Seating for Nine, Lemonade in Flight, Coffee and Legos, Harp and (half)-Irish Eyes Are Smiling, Constellations of Fireflies, Catch 'em if You Can, Long Legs and Flower Print Sailing the Backyard, A Cool Wind, Trusses for Tomatoes, Tony Soprano and Ice Cream, That is a Tasty Biscuit, Guayabera!, Kabob Under the Umbrella, Bread in the Eye, Peace.