say what?

“I’ll eat it, but I don’t have to like it!” My six year old daughter says so many things beyond her years. Today it was the butternut squash risotto I was buying, just to try it, that she referred to. Squash soup being the bane of her existence, this risotto I’m sure sounded to her to be a very close second. I had to laugh as she tried to negotiate her way out of it, before I even got it out of the store.

I just never know what is going to come out of this little girl’s mouth. She is taking everything in around her, even when (or perhaps: especially when) she does not appear to be listening at all. Often times we are driving our daily commute home at the end of the day, the radio is generally tuned to the news station to catch the frequent traffic updates, and my daughter is blabbering on about some nonsense, singing the latest music class favourite, or simply gazing out the window, when suddenly she’ll ask me a very pointed question about the news story that was just being covered. I have to admit, my mind is rarely on the news at hand, instead it’s wandering to some other topic, and I haven’t a clue what exactly she just heard.

We’ve discussed the razing of Africville and the long awaited apology and compensation. She has suggested repeatedly how great it will be when we can go to the Africville interpretive centre as if it will be opening tomorrow. I’ve tried to explain that I really have no idea how long it will take for this to actually be a reality, but this matters not to her. What a fantastic place this Africville must have been and what horrible treatment they received!

Not far from our home there is a lot of new construction going up, some being at the cost of lovely trees, trails and wildlife – another topic of conversation likely initiated by the same. But there are also large condos being built where small single family homes until recently had occupied. I am told that my daughter recently informed Ian that “they had to tear down people’s houses to build that condo, just like Africville!” Well, sweety, it’s actually not very much like Africville. I’m pretty sure the people that lived in THOSE houses were paid well for their homes, homes that it would seem they weren’t even living in anymore. People in Africville were forced out of homes that they did not want to sell. And they’re entire community was torn down with it. Remember, that is why they were finally getting an apology from the city?

Or what about the time she told me that she was pretty sure that a lot of “those people who are asking for money for food, or coffee, or something, don’t really NEED that money, they just WANT it.” I don’t know exactly what gave her that idea, but she knows that we only give people on the street food, not cash.

I really ought to keep a record of her insights. She sounds well beyond her years, so often.