Non Sequitur
A conversation with a six-year-old on a schoolbus, emphasis original:
He: "At our block party last night, there was a police officer, and he showed us his gadgets!"
I: "Which one was your favorite?"
He: "He had a magic stick, that when you waved it it grew!"
I: "Oh, really?"
He: "And he had a gun that shoots electricity!"
I: "Wow. You wouldn't want to do anything wrong with that by you, would you?"
He: "I want to live in a castle."
posted by Emily @ 8:10 PM
1 Comments:
Not a non sequitur by any means! You asked if he would want to do anything wrong given the understanding that the business end of a tazer might be his comeuppance, and he replied that indeed he would. Living in a castle is _wrong_. It is showy, wasteful, and proud. Its economic and environmental inefficiencies are shocking. It is a reminder of a bleak history of feudal oppression that cannot be ignored. On how many peasants' backs will this castle rest? And yet, this child seems to say, for all this wrong, and even in the face of the threat of physical harm if caught, the lure of might and preeminence is too strong to be denied. This six-year-old has given, in his own oblique way, a searing indictment of the weakness of the human soul when faced with ever-present temptation. He's a true philosopher.
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