“Does beef jerky come from sharks?”
“Excuse me?”
“Beef jerky, does it come from sharks?” repeats my daughter.
To be honest, I did not know where to go from there.
“No,” seemed to be an appropriate answer.
As a matter of fact, it seemed so ridiculous that I was stunned. Have I taught you nothing, dear child? What kind of nonsense are you weaving? Listen to yourself. This is crazy talk.
Internal dialogue is so much more cruel than it ought to be. Fortunately, I still have a filter and reflected a moment before a knee-jerky reply.
They do not offer Daddy courses and yet I am certain the world might be better for that possibility. I just went with my gut on this one. I did not answer as I might ordinarily do and went with a follow-up question instead.
“Walk me through that, Tali. Why do you ask?”
It really does not matter what she said or why or when. Details sometimes derail us from the point. The reality is that she was legitimately curious and had a line of thought quite intriguing. This was not a ridiculous question at all. It was a sincere inquiry posed by a sincere child.
I imagine all inquiry must be ridiculous to those wrought with supreme knowledge. And conversely, I imagine all inquiry is legitimate to those who are supremely wise.
For one morning at a market, I was less a know-it-all and a bit more wise than usual.
In any case, little Natalia taught me that there are many ridiculously legitimate questions to explore - if we are sincere enough to ask them.