Dinner Conversation

The other night at dinner, Wrigley asked me "What else exists that I don't know there is?"

At first blush, you'd think this is an easy question. She's four (and a half), for Chrissakes. There's an entire universe of stuff she doesn't know about. But I was pretty stumped. The rusty little gears that spin my brain cranked and wheezed a bit. I ran through categories of things she knows - space, animals, the ocean - and tried to think of things we hadn't talked about. I couldn't think of an animal that exists that she doesn't know of. I drew a blank. A musical instrument? Another blank. How about a fruit? Apparently, my daughter is a know-it-all and she doesn't even know it!

I finally managed to spit out a few ideas - "tuba" was one, I believe - but she was pretty unimpressed with my selections.

And this would be another one of those "Aw, ain't they cute?" entries if it weren't for all the things that I could think of that exist that Wrigley doesn't know about yet. Date rape jumps to mind. Racism. She doesn't know about that one yet. She doesn't know about state sponsored torture. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I just deleted a list of five things because it got too dark and my carefully masked bitterness began to show through too clearly.

This is not, I relaize, an earth shattering revelation: bad things exist. But right now, Wrig doesn't know that yet. And I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with this lack of information. Am I supposed to nurture her ignorance for as long as I can? Am I supposed to protect from all the bad guys and boogeymen? Am I supposed to ease her into the world of disappointment, one little heartbreak at a time?

Or do I just sit by and watch, letting her learn about all the things that exist that she doesn't know there is?