Chez Spud

White lies, or ‘fibs’ as my mother called them…we tell them all the time don’t we, mostly without even thinking about it. And sometimes we tell big fat black lies, willfully and knowingly. Sometimes to be cruel, sometimes because we think it’s the kindest thing to do.

As we were getting changed after swimming yesterday Bertie, out of nowhere, suddenly said, “Mummy. Everything is good with our planet isn’t it? Everything is alright with our planet?”. I didn’t really understand what he was asking, so I queried it and he just repeated the question, rather earnestly and optimistically.

How do you answer that? More specifically, how do you answer a 5 year old asking that? He knows a bit about some world issues, but in a very broad sense. So how do you begin to discuss the impact of famine, disease, political instability, lack of renewable energy sources, global warming, religious fundamentalism etc etc etc. And now MrSpud tells me the sun is ‘beginning to stir again’ and is about to start chucking out stuff that could take down the world’s electricity supplies and, scream, the internet for 20 plus years. Sheesh, the threats are coming from near and far.

So ‘is’ everything alright with our planet? Well of course not. Is everything alright in his own, little, tiny world right now? Yes it is. Ignorance is bliss, or so the saying goes. There’s no excuse for ignorance of course but, aged 5, I think he can be excused.

‘Is everything alright with our planet?’ he asked. ‘Yes’, I said…whilst crossing my fingers and envying him his innocence.

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