Rejoice!

(7)

'You will die some day and you will never return. Sorry.'

What a dreadful message to have to convey to your six year old child! I know because I was faced with that scenerio. I avoided telling that news to my oldest daughter, then to my youngest daughter. But one day Kathy accidentally stepped in her pet girbil, killing it, and I had to explain death to her. I don't remember whether I told her that she would also die like that gerbil or whether I left the bad news for her to deduce. In any case she seemed to accept the bad news with equanimity.

Nowadays I know enough not to avoid the subject. Nowadays my most existential message to my children would be something like, 'Someday you will die and you will never return. Rejoice!'