There's A Lot Riding on Your Tires...

She wants to know what Martin Luther King Day is. So I take this opportunity to tell her about who he was and why we still celebrate his legacy today. Which isn't easy when she doesn't know what racism is in the first place. Also not easy since she is five, and sweet as pie. I think pretty fast about how far to go on this. I know my time will be short, as attention spans are not long at this juncture!

So I begin to tell her that he was a very important man to many people who were not treated as equals. I struggle about whether to tell her that he was shot; she's very tender and caring of course...but I decided that telling her that reality in a gentle way is the way to make racism understood a bit better.

So I tell her someone shot him long, long ago...and that he died.

She of course was immediately horrified and I continue so as to make my point, telling her he was shot because he was an African American man who was very special, and some very bad people who did not like people of other colors did this to him.

I know I only have a short window of opportunity here at this point, so I go on to say that we of course like ALL people of ALL colors and for someone to kill another person is terrible.

She asked me, "Was Martin Luther King like Jesus?"

I thought that was pretty smart. "Yes, kind of, he was." And I said a few things about Jesus, and how this could be considered similar....

She then asked me if Jesus was shot!

OH boy.

And then she asked me if her friends who are "brown," are going to be shot!

Uh oh.

I am digging myself in this hole and her attention span is about to go. So quickly I try to fix what I broke! Soon, she seems secure that her friends will not be shot.

And then she says: Momma...?

Me: Yes?

Her, after a thoughtful pause: Why is there air in tires?