A few days ago, Aaron was driving with Benji to pick me up from work and singing a song to himself that includes the words "plastic Jesus." Of course, Benji asked him: "Daddy, what's plastic Jesus?"
Me, I would have said, "a statue of a guy" – because I'm lazy.
Aaron, on the other hand, rose to the challenge and explained, concisely and in terms that a four-year-old could understand, that some people believe in God (including the topic, what is God), and that some people believe God sent a part of himself down to earth in the form of a man named Jesus, to help people on earth be better people. And that some people believe different versions of this story, or other stories completely. Which is what we call "religion" and different people follow different religions.
In short, Aaron is an awesome parent and totally my hero.
What was Benji's response to this thoughtful encapsulation of some of the world's most complex theoretical topics? He said: "Daddy, dogs don't have long legs, do they?"
Make of it what you will. They picked me up from work, Aaron told me this story, and we laughed for a long time. Then we had a long discussion with Benji about how animal domestication occurs and how dog breeds develop, and why some dogs do, in fact, have long legs.
–Victoria
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