I pick this many every other day

And it's August!

(Full credit to Dale, who does all the gardening.  I am just harvesting while he's out of town.)

What about bad guys?

A nine-foot, four-ton Buddha carved from a single block of jade is on exhibit at a Vietnamese Buddhist temple in south Seattle. There was a picture in the newspaper; Jordan noticed at breakfast.

J: Who is this lady?
R: That’s actually a man, a statue of a man named Gautama Buddha.
J: Who is he?
R: He was a very special man, very calm and kind and with good ideas. So people make beautiful statues to help remember him.
J: What was his idea?
R: He had a lot of them, but one of his good ideas was that we are all connected to each other. Everyone matters to everyone else.
J: What about bad guys? And strangers?

I thought – wow, way to go straight to the heart of the matter, you know? I admire that.

I’m sure I did not give the best possible distillation of Buddhism, and I’m pretty sure Jordan did not find my response about bad guys and strangers particularly convincing (that people who do bad things are originally good people who get angry or troubled, and that strangers might be friends of friends of ours). I just liked what Jordan said.

The part that is here

I was reading about how people are praying for Christopher Hitchens.  He is not offended by their prayers, he says; he charitably assumes they are praying for his recovery.  On the possibility that he would make a belated confession of faith, he says “no one recognizable as [him] would ever make such a remark.”  I was reading the newspaper while the boys and I were eating strawberries, so I asked them about it.

Rachel: Here’s a guy, his name is Christopher, and he’s very sick and he is probably going to die soon so people are thinking about him and thinking about what happens after you die.  What do you think happens after you die?
Jordan: You fade into the earth.
Rachel: Do you think there is any part of you that is still here?
Jordan: Probably some small parts.
[I love that.]
Rachel: Some people think there is a part of you that stays alive after you die, a special part that you can’t see called the soul.  Some people think that that part stays around and visits, kind of like a ghost. 
Jordan: Is it good?
Rachel:  Usually, yes.  Other people think it goes somewhere else, called heaven.  Other people think there is not a part like that and after you die, you are gone.  What do you think?
Jordan: I think that my idea is right.  That you fade into the earth.
Rachel:  Do you think there is some part of Nana that is still here?
Jordan:  I think there is a part of her that is here that makes us remember her and give up for her.  I am not positively sure.
[I love that too.]
Rachel:  I miss Nana. 
Jordan:  She loved us even though all she could really do is watch us.
Rachel:  When I was a kid I used to go to her house for sleepovers, and she would make macaroni and cheese for me.  She made the best macaroni and cheese ever.
Aaron: When I grow up, I would like to be a special god, so that I can help people out when they are dead.

Time For Underpants

In the middle of last week Aaron declared that it was Time For Underpants.  We had hoped for this moment to arrive around now, and Aaron has been doing a terrific job.  It takes a lot of practice, but he has a good model.

Today, while sitting patiently on the potty, Aaron looked at me thoughtfully and said,

"Pee is mostly water.  And poop is mostly .... poop."

I had been wondering how he would finish that sentence.  What is poop, mostly?  Wikipedia is unhelpful on this one, although I did learn that the "distinctive odor" is due to bacterial action.  While I was musing, I became aware that Dale and Jordan, back in the bedroom, were having a biological conversation:  Jordan had asked Dale how the vitamins from your food get into your cells.  Quite a question, really.  Dale, much better equipped to answer than I would have been, explained it with an analogy to gas exchange through a balloon full of helium.  Did you know that?

While I am posting embarrassing pictures of the children, I may as well include these: