Difficult Questions

It's not altogether uncommon that Ella poses a question I cannot answer. Frequently I advise her to ask Daniel those questions, because he seems to have an answer for everything. I suspect his answers are not all correct, but they usually sound good. Examples of questions I've recently been asked:

• How can lightening be hotter than the outer layer of the sun? Is it hotter than fire? Can any fire be hotter than a lightening bolt?


• Why is Cromwell's castle in the water? Who is Cromwell?


• What is air? Is there air in a spaceship? How can you trap air in something? Can a baby chick survive in space? So, if a baby chick did go to space in a spaceship, would it get lost in the spaceship?


• Why do people get divorced? Why did those people ever get married to begin with?


• Why is it that Jesus died on the cross if He was trying to make it so that we could live forever? Seems like it would make more sense if He lived forever too.


• Which birds drive cars?


• If we sprinkled fairy dust on this doll's legs, do you think her legs could change into a boat?


• Is there such thing as a boat that can't sink? So, why did the Titanic sink?

Some of these questions are hard to answer. Some I can't answer. Some I don't want to answer. So, recently Ella asked me some obscure science question, and our conversation went a little something like this:

Mom: I don't know the answer to that question. I'll have to look it up.

Ella: Well, daddy probably knows, right?

Mom: It's possible. You can ask him when he gets home.

Ella: Why is it that daddy knows so much more than you?

Mom: He doesn't know more than me. It's just that you ask me a lot of science questions, and daddy knows a lot more about science than I do.

Ella: So, it's kind of like daddy is your teacher?

Mom: Kind of. But there are things that I understand better than daddy does.

Ella: Like what?

Mom: Umm . . . like people . . . umm, social interactions, . . . and . . . relationships . . . umm particularly celebrity gossip . . . and I understand feelings.

Ella: So, you're daddy's teacher too.

Mom: Exactly!