Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Thinking about Halloween: Life, Death and the First Day of 3rd Grade

It was the first day of school for Birk today. We were making eggs over easy on the stove together, cooking and chatting.

BIRK: Mom, when you're reincarnated, what would you like to come back as?
MOM: Reincarnated?
BIRK: You know, after you die, you come back as something else. I'd like to be a bunny or a Pegasus.
MOM: The thing is...
BIRK: Do you get to come back to the same family? Can I be in this family when I'm reincarnated?

You have to wonder where these ideas come from. I know we've discussed Heaven, so this reincarnation thing side swiped me.

Over coffee with my friend, she said her son created his own idea of Heaven after his grandmother passed away. In his idea of 6-year-old Heaven, people lay on their backs in the grass and stare up at clouds. He was also insistent that his cremated grandmother have a "stone" somewhere with her name.

It must be like being a little explorer in this vast world. Ideas and images fly around and you have to grasp and grapple. His mother wondered where he got the idea of a tombstone.

I guess we drive by cemeteries in the car and we put all kinds of freakish decorations out for Halloween. TV and movies probably add to the it and there is a bevy of information about religions and beliefs that is discussed at school.

I'm quietly thinking about a conversation that I can have with Birk later. We live in a world where ideas are colors blending on the palette. Time to paint a masterpiece.

1 comment:

The Bodhi Chicklet said...

This is a great post. The world of children where everything is immediate is incredible. I'd love to hear just what you guys talk about later. I talk about death with my 8 year old son if he brings it up (we lost our dog a year ago) and he loves to stop and say a prayer over anything that has expired - birds, bugs. I'm just waiting for him to say one over my sense of humour one day.