Today I got the following e-mail from Butterfly in Canada describing a conversation she had with her boys Yazha and Iko, 2 of the sweetest, wisest kids I've ever met. If only more adults shared their perspective.


"TONIGHT AT DINNER I WAS TALKING TO THE BOYS ABOUT INEQUALITY, THE ROOT of conflict between the bourgoisie & the proletariat, & why there can never be true peace when some are overextending their own rights & oppressing other people's.

iko said that when he grew up & could read & had lots of money, that he would just tell everybody to stop fighting.

yazha said, 'problem is iko, by the time you can read, life just isn't so easy anymore.'

i reminded him that life isn't easy at any age, that life is hard whether you're 5, 10, 15 or 50...

i told him that he had to get used to hard work, & things not being fair, that if he wanted to be happy he was going to have to work hard for it, & that most of the people in this world have much harder lives than we do...

he said 'i know mama, i know, but i just want to believe!' & at this he dropped his head into his hands & started sobbing, taking me completely by surprise.

'want to believe what, yazha?'

'i just want to believe that the world is better than that...that everyone can be happy...i could be happy with nothing. even if i was a beggar i would be happy. in fact when i grow up, i sort of hope i become a beggar, not really, but if i did, i would show people that you don't need money to be happy, that you can have nothing & be happy anyways. i think i will become a beggar.'

'i hope not yazha, it's a very hard life being that poor, with nowhere to sleep, & often nothing to eat, it's not the perfect carefree life you're imagining,' i warned.

'nothing's perfect, mom,' he says to me, as though he were explaining that, when you drop something—it goes down, to a toddler who ought to already know.

i told him i thought he was very brave to want to be so poor.

'if that's brave, i think most people are very brave,' my lovely 9-year-old empathist replied.

...just makes me want to stick him in a cryo-box quick, before the hormones start bringing him down... (sigh)