The Circle of Life

"Don't waste your meat Lennox!" I scolded earlier today as I spied him dropping his turkey slices beneath his chair.  

Sawyer was munching delicately and happily away at his turkey and cucumber mayo sandwich without dropping a single crumb. Dagny on the other hand was mashing hers all up into a gooey sandwich ball, which was probably worse than Lennox's not so subtle floor bombs, because it leaves the leftovers in no fit state for Momma to eat. 

It would have irked me less if I knew Lennox didn't like turkey slices, but he's been known to wolf down roll after roll without inhaling. He just likes his cucumber and mayo bread more. And let's face it, he's basically a professional shit-stirrer. 

I used to call him a professional little brother. But recently he's mastered the fine art of winding up every single person in the household. He also extracts the most giggles out of everyone ~ so all is usually forgiven. 

Still, meat is meat. And wasting is a pet hate of Mommas. And if there's anything I can't stand - it's wasting meat. Obviously wee britches is very well aware of this. 

I took a deep breath and decided to treat my wasteful 3 year old like the rational and considerate human being that I believe he already is. 

"Baby, please don't waste your meat. An animal had to die so that you could eat your meat. I don't want that animal to have died for nothing. Wasting good meat really upsets me, so please eat it."

Lennox understood what I said very well. I know he did. And he'll probably repeat the statement verbatim in a few weeks time over bacon and eggs at the Grandparent's house, but for now he stayed quiet. 

Sawyer, however, did not. Instead he put his plate down and said,

"When I die, if I come back as a pig then someone will kill me and eat me." 

It would have been a little more morbid had he not proceeded to fall to the floor and fake his death all the while wailing..

"Noooo! NOOOO!!! Don't eat me, don't eat me!!"

My almost five-year old was just larking about (...and did I mention one of his favorite stories is the three little pigs and the big bad wolf?) but I have to say his words gave me chills. I'm not Buddhist ~ but I'm not anything else either~ and so where the 'hell' (no pun intended) do our souls go?! I mean, there are times I could swear the dog must have been a real person in a former life....

Interestingly enough our Sawyer has really cottoned on to the idea of reincarnation. We don't go to church, and we're not sold on the idea of heaven and hell, but Momma shares ideas and theories from ALL walks of life whenever the kids ask tricky questions. I guess he likes the idea of reincarnation best of all.  

Suddenly I wanted to drop my turkey on the floor too. I've toyed with the idea of vegetarianism time and time again. I've never attempted it though (after all, meat tastes yummy) and I'm not sure if this is one aspect of my existence I've ever been proud of, ethically speaking. Whatever way you look at it it's MURDER DEATH KILL. And here I am making the kids co-conspirators against their free will.

I'm just not sure if I'm ready yet to explain to the kids why it's okay to kill an animal to eat it. 'Cos it's tasty and delicious!' Doesn't seem to quite cut it. 

Maybe we all just need to watch The Lion King a few more times.