Ponder the World at Four

Last night when it cooled down outside I turned on the porch light and as the heat of the day eased into night my four year old and I sat on the bench looking out at the garden. (This is the view from the bench.)




The neighbors were also out next door and they had a bag that in the darkening evening looked like a great big snail, one of his favorite things to find and play with in the garden. The conversation went something like this.

Me: I don’t like snails because they eat our food
Him: But they don’t go in our kitchen.
Me: No, our food that is outside growing on these plants and trees in our yard.
Him: And what about snails in other peoples yards?
Me: Well most other people grow grass and people don’t eat grass.
Him: Why?
Me: I don’t know.

To him, at four, it is completely normal to have a vegetable garden in the front yard. The next door neighbors with the grass he refers to as ‘the ones with a park in front of their house’. Interesting isn’t it. I still don’t know why people have to grow grass.