Death

Jack has been asking me about death lately. Will I die? he asks. For a while, I didn't answer the question directly. I said, when you are really, really, really old.. waaaaay in the future ... far away. Then finally, yesterday I said, yes, one day, you will die. He said, oh no. And sounded very sad. I have since introduced the idea of heaven. Earlier today, he asked me where he was when Ryan and I did our cross-country cycling ride. I told him he was in heaven. I said it was outside of space. You live there before are born and after you die. Mainly, I do not want Jack to have existential anxiety when he is 5. I remember when my mom explained what heaven was. I was also 5. I was raised Catholic so it seemed to fit with my idea of reality. I asked her what you wore in heaven and she said nothing. This caused me a lot of concern but I did not worry about dying. I don't think I challenged this idea until high school. Ryan is an atheist but has promised to go along with my story. We really don't know what happens when we die anyway so I am not exactly lying. It helps me introduce my idea of God to Jack which has been difficult to do since we don't go to church. We are talking more about other peoples' religions. His questions are always so big.