Monday, August 18, 2008

Heaven

Heaven, Heaven is a place
a place where nothing
nothing ever happens.

Talking Heads

This has always been one of Joe-Henry's favorite songs. So you would think that those lyrics might have influenced his ideas about the great beyond.

You would be mistaken, my friend.

According to my son, Heaven is a HAPPENIN' place. There is much to do, lots to see, and I for one hope I get in.
This is the conversation we just had at bedtime:

Him: "Mom, what do you think Heaven is like"

Me: Using my supermommy powers of deflection of tricky subject matter when I don't have all my wits about me "Well, I don't know. What do YOU think it's like?"

Him: "I think it's really beautiful. It's like a castle. Like the castle of Naboo, only prettier. And there are tombs there. But not, like, Mummy tombs, but tombs where you can pick them to be your favorite color. And they have them in a special room and you can sleep there if you want. And there's Angel Guards..."

Me: "Do you mean Guardian Angels?"

Him: "No, Angel GUARDS. They protect you and keep the bad guys out. And some of them are on top of the castle, and some of them row the kayaks in the river, and you can jump from this cool bridge that opens up like this (demonstrates his arms pulling away from one another) and into the kayaks and go for rides. And there are these faeries who wave these special wand things. They fly, because if they walked they'd step on the tombs and be all like 'ewww, get me a towel, I just stepped on a tomb'. But they wave their wands and dandelion poofs go out into the sky and it's really pretty."

Me: "It sounds so nice. I'd like to go to that Heaven."

Him: "Be good mom. I bet you'll make it."

Me: unspoken "I'm already there."

5 comments:

fuquinay said...

This is one of those best kid conversations that you just have to save forever so he can scrunch up his face at you and say, "what are you talking about, old lady? I never said that," and you can show him this, and it'll be true. Because you wouldn't have written it down.

We are heathens in my house and don't talk about what heaven is like. In fact, my daughter, at ten, has been a bit neurotic since seven, so she is mostly concerned that one of us will be seeing it sooner than any of us wants.

karigee said...

Oh, that's the sweetest thing. (And I would choose Naboo, too.)

I, Rodius said...

My favorite part was definitely the "ewww, get me a towel, I just stepped on a tomb." That's the kind of phrase the deserves to live on in the family vernacular.

anniemcq said...

Leslie - thanks so much for stopping by! We are fairly heathen here, too. I was raised a Lutheran, but to say I'm lapsed is putting it mildly. My husband threatens to burst into flames if he has to sit through a church service. Joe-Henry went to a fairly conservative Lutheran preschool because it was close to home, what we could afford, and I really liked the staff. But we've been having discussions like this for years, staying pretty open to everything, so that one day he can decide for himself.

And Rodius - that was my favorite part too. It was so hard not to laugh!

suttonhoo said...

re favorite part: mine too.