Today's lesson

It seems a sad sign of the times that a 4-year-old boy couldn't escape today without learning of the seminal event of my lifetime, a tragedy that happened before he was even conceived.

Still, I wasn't upset that his teachers discussed 9/11 in his class. He needs to know, I think, to understand why things are the way they are these days. I try to be frank with him, to put these kind of things in terms that he can understand.

The subject came up the way these things always do, very suddenly, while we were in the midst of doing something else.

Mommy, the plane hit the building.
Yes, it did, sweetie.
And then the fire engines went there, but then the fire engines all died. (He often says fire engines, when he means firefighters.)
Yes, darling.
But, why, Mommy?
Oh, honey. I wish it were easy for us to understand that.