Peace And Love, But No Understanding

At the end of last evening, as I was getting Ethan ready for bed and with his new fascination with the Beatles, I decided to push my luck a bit. Ethan, made a comment about how much he wished for peace, and in the course of the ensuing conversation (about why he brought this up, what he was thinking about in particular when he said it, etc...), I mentioned that John Lennon was a big believer in peace as well.

I went on to talk about the song "Imagine," asking if he'd heard it at school or anywhere else. Receiving a blank stare, I asked if he wanted me to sing him a little bit of it. Despite the fact that he (like everyone else) knows I can't sing at all, he said he would.

After getting through the key part, he asked if he could see the video for it this morning on youTube (a common way for me to present music for the kids), and I of course jumped at the chance.

But things didn't go quite as planned. Just after breakfast, while Claire turned on her new favorite show...Disney Channel's "Sonny With A Chance" (more on that another day), Ethan retreated to the couch to play with his Nintendo DS...some game about dinosaurs. I asked him if he wanted to see the "Imagine" video. He did, and I turned it on.

And he kept playing his DS. "Ethan, it's on."

"I know, Dad. I can hear it, DAD." And he kept on playing.

"Ethan, you need to hear the words, to get the meaning. It's a beautiful song."

"Dad, I KNOW! But I've got to kill this dinosaur first. I've been clubbing him and hitting him, and I've almost got him dead."

Dinosaurs aren't people (although to Ethan they might as well be), but I think perhaps the message of "Imagine" was going to be lost on him, at least for today.