Tuesday, September 21, 2010
His New Pet
21-Sep-2010:
Dom has a new pet. Several new pets actually. :-) He was pretty excited about it at first but not anymore. He still feeds them everyday though.
One day, one of the fish died. He wasn't too upset about it but over the past few weeks, we've been having talks about death. It came about when he overheard Saimun and I talking and he caught me saying "your mother" (refering to Saimun's mum). After that, he came about asking me where my mother was and I told him that she's dead. I think he must have been quite confused because he then proceeded to ask me where my grandfather was and I said he's dead too. Over the next few days, he would bring up the topic whenever he felt like it and asked why my grandfather died. How? Did he die in Ipoh? Is he still in Ipoh? The moment he asked that last question, I knew that he didn't fully understand the meaning of death. We had several conversations where I told him that yes, my grandfather is in a graveyard in Ipoh, and then had to explain what's a graveyard. He asked all sorts of questions. How did he breathe in there? Is there a house in there where he lives? But where does he live? So I had to explain that he doesn't live because he's dead, yadda, yadda, he's turned to dust and all that. He asked if he will wake up? How about bringing him to the doctor. I said when you're dead, even the doctors can help. To my surprise, he insisted that yes, can! If he goes to the hospital the doctor can make him wake up!
Well, that was many weeks ago and we had those conversations before the fish died. When the fish died, he witnessed death the first time and saw his daddy throw the fish away. I told him, that is death. The fish has died, it won't move anymore and you won't see it anymore, forever. "Can we go buy another fish?", he asked.
At night, he told me that he wanted to pray to Jesus so that daddy and mummy don't die. Incidentally, during one of our conversations, I also told him that he is very lucky because he has daddy and mummy and a sister and a nice house to live in. (The topic of luck came into play while we were driving and we hit green light after green light at the traffic lights without having to stop). I told him that some children do not have daddies and mummies and have no one to love them. He instinctively told me that it's because those children didn't pray to God and didn't go to church!
Well, well, well ... this son of mine is growing up quickly and is very amusing, and also very, very naive too. He has got so much more to learn.
