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New Year’s conversation with my seven-year-old granddaughter on nukes

Jan 12, 2017

Granddaughter (GD): Nano, I’ve heard that there are bombs that could destroy the world.

Me: Is that what you’ve heard?

GD: Is it true?

Me: Well, maybe, but there are also asteroids that could do the same thing, like with the dinosaurs, which I’m sure that you’ve also heard of.

GD: Yeah, but humans didn’t make the asteroids, so why would humans make something like the asteroids?

Me: Well, it seems that we don’t trust our neighbours.

GD: But if the bombs do the same thing that the asteroids did, what sense does it make to make them?

Me: It makes no sense, but not everything in this world makes sense.

GD: But aren’t adults supposed to protect children?

Me: Yes, but sometimes we make mistakes, and in this case, we made a mistake to think that bombs would keep our children safer.

GD: Well, when children make mistakes, adults ask them to correct them, so why don’t adults correct their mistakes?

Me: Well, I think it’s because we adults are reacting to our own losses from the past instead of the safety of our children and grandchildren in the present.

GD: Like what losses?

Me: Oh, life is full of losses. When you are born, you lose the protection of your mommy’s tummy; when you get teeth, you lose the bottle; when you are 2-3 you lose the right to go to the bathroom in your pants; when you are about 5 you lose the right to stay home and play all day, and you have to go off to kindergarten; when you are about 12, you lose the right to play dolls all the time, because everyone expects you to play with more grown-up things; when you are 18, you sometimes go away to school, etc..

GD: Yeah, but those losses aren’t so bad, at least not bad enough to make you want to make a bomb that could destroy the world. So why do they then?

Me: Because all of those losses start to add up, pile on top of each other, and then get added to losses as an adult, like the loss of having to give up play entirely and go to work, sometimes losing jobs, money, partners, health, other loved ones, and then the person starts being more afraid and trusting even less.

GD: But I have lost some of those things, and I still don’t want to make bombs.

Me: Yes, but at some point, something happens inside us, and our hearts become frozen, like in the movie “Frozen,” or the story that “Frozen” is based on, which is Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen.” In “The Snow Queen,” Elsa and Anna re two childhood playmates, the little girl, Gerda, and the little boy, Kai, Kai’s heart becomes frozen, he is kidnapped by an evil “Snow Queen,” and Gerda finds him and unthaw’s his heart with love and tears.

GD: Oh, I know about “Frozen”, but I didn’t know about “The Snow Queen.”

Me: Yes, and Andersen says that adults have to become like children by remembering their childhood, facing their fears, getting over their losses, and thawing their hearts so that they can love like when they were children.

GD: So would they then destroy the bombs?

Me: Yes, and that was almost done by two presidents by the name of Reagan and Gorbachev, but it didn’t happen.

GD: But why?

Me: Because they weren’t quite courageous enough to face all of their fears from the past. But there are now going to be two presidents a lot like them who could maybe make it happen.

GD: So will it happen, Granddad?

Me: Well, we will be rooting for them, and we should also get out and let them know how much we want this for you and your children.

GD: Oh, Granddad, I know you can do it!!!!

So, Mr Trump and Mr Putin, we have to face our childhood fears and deal with our later losses because the children of the world are asking for it and certainly deserve it!!!!!