the mysteries of our origins have been revealed

i am not a huge conversationalist, or rather, i don't feel that i know how to speak to children to get the most spark out of them. i have seen glimpses, though, of sheer brilliance and pure wonder and imagination. it's true that i haven't even lost all of mine, but sometime in the last thirty-one years, i've lost most of it. so whenever my children say wildly "childish" things, i savor them, delighting in their insight and conclusions.

yesterday's conversation with my four year old was one worth writing down immediately!

pea: were people alive when there were dinosaurs?

me: according to what we know, people and dinosaurs weren't alive at the same time.

pea: then, if there were no people, how did the first person get born?

me: ah, that's the most mysterious question in the whole world. :pause:
       some people believe that god created them...

pea: do you even think he exists?

me: :trying not to fall out of my car from the shock that my four year old even knows this is a question worth asking: um, i start, uh...i don't think of god as some people do, like he's a person or thing capable of creating other people or things, but rather, i think of god as the creative energy force within all of us (and then worrying that i'm getting way too philosophical for my own good, i redirect to the original question) but anyhow, some other people think that maybe we evolved from other creatures, like ancient apes...

pea: i think that a dinosaur's egg hatched, or whatever they do, and then surprise! a person came out!