Bye, bye blackbird

The other day at Shira and her friend Benny discovered a dead blackbird at the park. Shira was devastated over the bird's death and wept copious tears in the van over the way the cruel world cut short its life. Ben, on the other hand, was much more prosaic. "you live, you die", was his response. That's my boy!

I tried to use this as a chance to explain the cycle of life and that death is a natural part of living, that without death, you can't have life. That there is nothing to mourn about a creature's moving through the cycle. That we should give thanks to that bird for giving it's nutrients back to the earth to feed something else. Shira wasn't buying it. LOL

Benny's mom took some videos of the kids burying the bird. Here's the vid of Benny and Shira burying the bird (fear not, they did not touch the bird with their hands)


Here's a video of Benny and Jillian (another homeschooler) giving the bird a funeral.