Death & Hunger

Remember the shocking incident of the 11-yr-old Japanese schoolgirl who killed her classmate with a boxcutter? The schoolgirl said after the event that she was sorry for her actions, and that she wanted to apologize to her classmate in person, and not just over the internet or via letters.

In person, and not just over the internet or via letters... the girl truly thought that she would be able to see her classmate again. Her notion of death was completely distorted.. she truly believed that her classmate could be resurrected, just like in computer games or in the movies.

Makes you wonder how the children out there view death, or know what death is all about. I suppose, adults have always been wary of telling kids about death for fear of frightening them. But, reality is, and this is what I find truly ironic about the whole issue, many children nowadays probably encounter death daily, but not in the form of say the death of a close one, but in a distorted, almost entertaining manner. I mean, I'm not advocating that violence should be banned from children.. how can that be possible if it is also important to let the child know that violence is an everyday fact of life (i mean, in the sense that life is not just pretty and nice and a whole bed of roses)? But it's so hard to know what goes on in a child's mind -- what gears move or get stuck and how a child forms his/her concept of things around him.

And it's not just concerning death. Interesting enough, I brought this topic up to a colleague recently, and she related to me an incident that I found rather thought-provoking as well. This colleague has a much younger brother, and she remembered that when her brother was about 10-11 years of age, one day, out of the blue, he asked his mother what "hunger" meant. Because he said he had never really experienced it.

Food (pardon the pun) for thought, I'd say.