“dreams of war, dreams of liars, dreams of dragon’s fire / and of things that will bite, yeah”

(Background: We’ve been teaching Eaglet that the harder cuss words are inappropriate most of the time, but there are occasions where they are the exact right words to use, based on the severity of what's being said. Thanks to this, they now sometimes use “Ess-aitch word!” when a cleaner “Shoot!” or “Crap!” just isn’t strong enough.)

During last night’s bedtime wind-down discussion, Eaglet wanted to talk about war and whether any wars are currently being fought. So I summarized a few, and led them through how most fighting is caused by fear (especially of not having enough food/water/land/resources) or past misdeeds. Finally they burst out, “War is fucking stupid!” then realizing what they’d said, looked at me wide-eyed, “Was that appropriate?”

I met their gaze and said, “Yes, that’s an appropriate use of the word. War is fucking stupid.”

I even got to teach a little bit about Quaker pacifism and peacework before the day caught up with them and they finally crashed.

---L.

Subject quote from Enter Sandman, Metallica.