Today I was driving my nephew back to my sister’s house and when we came to the construction he was like “We’re close! Do you know how I know?”

“How?” I inquired.

“Because of the construction. Its been here my whole life.” he responded.

I corrected him in that it’s been there since he and his mom moved into the house, but it only seems like it’s been there his whole life because he’s never seen that road without it. And then I inquired how he would know that he was close after the construction was over. He tried to say that he would still know because traffic would have to slow down, at which point I had to explain how the construction had changed the dynamics of normal traffic in that area and when the construction was over all of the temporary barriers would be removed as would the reduction in the posted speed.

I then had to explain what temporary and permanent meant. “Permanent is like Forever, and Temporary is just for a little while.” I explained.

“Oh.” he replied, and then followed up with “you know what else is temporary?”

“What?” I asked

“Me! I’m temporary.” he stated.

“Me too.” I said in agreement.

“Because everybody dies.” He continued.

“This is true. But there is no reason to rush to it or focus on it. It happens to all of us, and we don’t know when it will happen.” I explained.

He went on to ask if when Jahkah (Grandpa) died, were his eyes open or closed. I confirmed that his eyes were closed. He asked about what he died from and I explained that several days earlier Jahkah had a heart attack and that he eventually succumb to the effects of the heart attack.

He seemed satisfied with that. And turned to other things.

This kid might be a little obsessed with death.