Joshua and the Stickman

A while back I took my three boys on a little hiking trip. We saw a couple of waterfalls, played around, and had a good day together. On the way home I had playing in the van a Pierce Pettis cd. I wasn't really listening to the cd and neither were the boys, or so I thought. In the middle of my thinking where to stop and eat and in the middle of the boys talking and playing Joshua said, "Daddy?" It was the type of "Daddy" that one knows will be followed by a question. From Joshua this usually means a question about either a video game or some strange hypothetical such as, "If we could create space suits that allowed one to go into the sun, what would we find there?" So, I braced myself for such a question and responded to him, "Yes, Joshua."

"Daddy, I don't get it. Who is the stickman?"
"What?"
"The stickman. Who is he."

That's when I realized what song was playing and that Joshua was actually listening to it. In short, "Stickman" is a song about a man dying. More importantly, it is about the indifference people have to his dying. This gave me a moment to talk with Joshua about the need to care and to show compassion. Our conversation went on for a few minutes and then just as quickly as it begin it ended with inquiries as to where we would eat. Nothing more was said about the stickman.

Fast forward about a month and a half later. I'm in the kitchen cooking dinner when Joshua walks in and says, "Daddy?" Again, it has that tone that a major question will follow.

"Yes, son."
"Daddy, I understand that the stickman is dying and has a bad disease, but I don't understand why no one cares?"
"I don't know either."

In Second

The other day, my 9 year old son had this revelation: "You know how the Bible says that 'the first will be last and the last will be first', well, technically if you are in second you just stay there."