My daughter got Charlotte’s Web (the book) for Christmas. She may be only three and a half but, at bedtime, she sat attentively through Chapter I: Before Breakfast.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, it starts out with a litter of pigs being born. The runt among them is about to be put to death when Fern, an eight-year-old girl, steps in.
“Please don’t kill it!” she sobbed. “It’s unfair.”
Mr. Arable stopped walking.
“Fern,” he said gently, “you will have to learn to control yourself.”
“Control myself?” yelled Fern. “This is a matter of life and death, and you talk about controlling myself.” Tears ran down her cheeks and she took hold of the ax and tried to pull it out of her father’s hand…”it’s unfair,” cried Fern. “The pig couldn’t help being born small, could it? If I had been very small at birth, would you have killed me?…This is the most terrible case of injustice I ever heard of.” [emphasis added]
Now I know we all need to function within a civilized society, but perhaps we’ve all learned to control ourselves a little too well. No, I’m not advocating we all behave like eight-year-old girls — heavens knows they can get away with worlds more than a 30-something woman like myself can — but I do suggest we remember that this cause, the pro-life cause as we typically call it, is indeed a matter of life and death.
I feel a New Year’s resolution coming on.
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Daniel Gilman says
I think this is the most life changing post I’ve read on any webstie in the entire blogworld lately. Seriously. I’m going to go and reflect and pray about life now. Thanks!
grenadier says
This shows that sometimes an 8 year old girl is a lot smarter than umpteen brainwashed (so-called) adults.