December 02, 2004

Geography and Death

Aidan the geography wiz is at it again. Last night I decided to count the countries or other geographical entities he can identify. Most of them he can point to and tell me what they are. A few I have to say, "show me where....is."

The current list (in no particular order, with spotaneous comments in parentheses) is: Turkey ("I was in Mummy's belly"), Russia, Japan ("looks like a crocodile"), United States, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, Iceland, Italy, the Philippines, Galapagos Islands, Alaska, Taiwan, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Caledonia, Fiji, France, Greenland, Madagascar, Canada, Ireland, India, Ukraine ("that where the trouble is in the news"), Sri Lanka, North and South Korea, and China. He can also point out the tiny sliver of land where David killed Goliath ("he cut off his head with a sword"), but he doesn't remember that it is called Israel. We are currently working on Germany, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Argentina, Falkland Islands, Peru, and New Zealand.

The previous time we did "countries", he asked where the dead people are. He knows they are with Jesus, but that they are also in the ground, because we have visited the grave of Mrs H's grandfather several times lately. He knows that Grampy G is buried in the United Kingdom. He then understood that Uncle Dean was buried in the United States. He started pointing to country after country asking, "Is there dead people there?"

I explained to him that there are dead people in every country, because everyone dies. Now when we spread out the world map, one of the first things he says is, "There's dead people everywhere! There's dead people there, and there, and there, and there..." I made me realise that in one sense, the earth is just one giant grave.

Posted by david at December 2, 2004 11:46 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Ik ga totaal akkoord. Ware Thats, mijn oom altijd vertelde me dat. Ik houd van uw adviezen en ik zal vaker uw plaats voortaan bezoeken. Dank voor grote inhoud, houdt het goede werk. Ongelooflijk er zijn geen dergelijke goede plaatsen zoals van u. Als mijn bovengenoemde grootvader: het goede werk zal altijd appriciated zijn. Ten slotte zou ik willen toevoegen dat vele mensen niet aith akkoord zouden gaan dat het soort adviezen maar dont, harder houdt opgeeft! Hvis du vil have Christiania Mønten med hjem som souvenir, skal du spørge efter den når du handler i Fristaden. Hører du til den type der synes, at lokale valutaer er et spændende økonomisk eksperiment, opfordres du til at bruge Christiania Mønten i din hverdag.

Posted by: Grizzlie at December 6, 2004 12:33 AM
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