"What is war?"

This is a hard question to answer ... especially when a 4.5 year old is asking it. We are pretty open when talking to Jaida about most things. We have been very open with Jaida about reproductive biology and she understands what we have told her (for the most part). We have also been fairly open about our (our being Joe and I) lack of religious beliefs. We are fairly cautious in these conversations for two reasons ... first we do not want to brainwash Jaida into believing as we do. Religion is a very personal decision .... I just want her to be fully informed when she eventually decides what she wants to believe or not believe if that is the case. Secondly, she attends a Baptist preschool ... where I think her parents views might make more than a few waves.

Anyhow, back to the subject of war. A couple of weeks ago Joe and I were discussing the mess the US has gotten itself into and the best ways to get ourselves out of it. The next day Jaida asks Joe what is war. The question caught us both off-guard. I suppose because it is such a complicated question and is even more complicated by the fact that Jaida really has no concept of deadly violence. She never watches tv shows or even cartoons that have violence in them. She doesn't even know that a gun is called a gun. She refers to guns as shooters and really has no idea what they are used for other than the fact that kids can accidentally get hurt by them. She just knows that if she is ever around another kid that has a shooter she is to get far away and find an adult and tell them ... she is absolutely never to touch it. Part of our difficulty in explaining war to Jaida is her absolute naivity on the subject of violence. Explaining the current war is made even more difficult due to the fact that all the ways I/Joe would use to describe a war/reason for war such as ... war only happens after all the other peaceful ways of resolving conflict have been exhausted, we (our military) are protecting ourselves from aggressors, we are protecting our freedom and way of life, and wars are short lived disagreements that eventually get worked out and make life better for all involved ... are simply not true at all. Add to that the inevitable questioning of what we would do if war was to happen where we live and I can honestly say I have no idea how to answer these questions.

For now, we found a very general way of explaining war to Jaida. When we were done talking about war the puzzled look remained on her face but she got side tracked with something else. We are bracing ourselves for the tough to answer questions that are sure to come soon as she mulls over all teh information we gave her.