This morning’s before school conversation took an odd turn. First, August was mentioning how he hoped the Easter Bunny would bring him the orange teenage mutant ninja turtle with accompanying Mummy (each turtle comes with a “bad guy”), and before you knew it, I was explaining death.“Are Mummies nice?” August asked.
“Sweetie, mummies are just dead people wrapped up.”
“Yes, but are they nice or mean?” His asked with all seriousness.
“Well, when they were alive, I’d say some were nice and some weren’t. You see, different cultures do different things with people once they die, based on beliefs.”
Matthew chimes in, “Yes, in Africa they wrap them up and you can just walk in rooms and see them standing there.”
August-worry crosses his face.
I then say, “Well, it is actually in Egypt, and you can’t just walk in and see them, they are hidden. Some people wrap up dead bodies. Like us, we either bury them or burn them…….”
“What???” Matthew and August say.
Me…..was it alright to say that? “Yes, it is called cremating, and the body is burned and reduced to ashes that you can do with what you please. Like the neighbors cat that died, they had it cremated and now the ashes sit up on their mantle.”
August-silence
Matthew-silence.
Me-“but don’t worry kids…our soul, the good part of us, goes up to heaven. Our body is just a body. As for the mummies on television, they are just people like you and me pretending to be a mummy. Mummies are dead people, and dead people can never get up and walk around. Once you are dead, you are dead.” Upbeat conversation, I know.
More silence. Then, finally, from August, “Like how on Scooby-Doo sometimes the monsters aren’t real, they are just people in costumes or are being operated by a string. But they are really just people, like us. Like that, right mommy?”
“Um…”
I consider telling him that Scooby-Doo is just a cartoon and that none of the characters are real, they are just drawings with real people who lend their voices to the drawings to make them seem real, and….
“Yes, August, just like in Scooby-Doo.” I smile.
He smiles. “Oh, o.k.!”
Matthew ends his silence with, “But Mom, Egypt is in Africa.”
Uh….
Me-silence. Going to have to look that one up. I don’t think so, but Matthew is pretty smart, so I don’t want to say he is wrong. My mom- brain ate my world map.
