Super P: Anarchist, Atheist

Phoenix, 11 months old, on his first Halloween, was Super Baby (really just a bib and jammies with a felt plaque, but I think he felt pretty powerful nonetheless :)

P has been Big into Super of late. I'm guessing it has something to do with needing to feel more powerful after the eye ordeal, but who knows, really :) He hasn't seen any super-anything shows or books, but its made its way into his consciousness nonetheless :) This manifests with him running pell mell through the house, lifting chairs with toys stacked on top, jumping from unusually high heights, all the while saying "Look, Mama! Look how fast/strong I am!" :) He measures his height against the wall with regularity (Funny side note. BB has a small height strip too. Apparently, I was a bit sloppy when marking it the first time, as the next time we measured BB, sure enough, he appeared to have Grown. P was Thrilled. "BB," he whispered as he hugged his monster close, "you really Are magic... Do you sneak out of the bedroom at night to eat your food?")

Then, while in Florida, seemingly happily playing with the box of critters loaned to him, he suddenly declared "I don't like god, mama."
Me: Really? Ok. Any reason in particular?
P: Yah, I don't like god cuz he kills us.
Me: Oh! He kills us, huh? Oh.
P: Yah, and I don't want to die. So I don't believe in god.
Me: Ok. You don't have to believe in god. Some people do, some don't. Some people think god kills us, some don't...
P: Well, I think god kills us, and I won't die, so I don't believe in god. You can't believe in god either mama, ok?

We've had a few iterations of this chat since then, me letting small amounts of info leak about various belief systems, P still claiming god is not his bag :) I really don't know where he's getting his info from (despite knowing Exactly where he gets all of his info!). E and I never talk about god in our house. I give thanks up to the Universe, we put out our hopes and dreams to the Universe. We've talked about the idea of karma and creating our own realities. When cornered I've admitted to believing in something like "god." But other than the multi-cultural religious story-books portraying typical God situations that he's occasionally picked up at the library, there has been no god chat here. Nevertheless, its hilariously entertaining to listen to his process :)

Then we were having a discussion about China this morning. He wanted lots of info and the subject of dictatorships came up. P was enthralled and repelled by the concept. (Remember, this is the same kid that stood atop our table at two and yelled "Down with the government!!" when he found out the "government" was behind his airport baggage searches. And no, we've never uttered these words in front of him, nor complained about bag searches. He just seems to naturally channel a Che'/Chomsky combo on a regular basis...)

I had to chuckle as our morning played out. P, driving his new tank with BB, dressed in a Tic Tac costume (the tic tac fit into the tank), alternating with the "Phoenix Doll" we made that is sized properly to little BB. They crept through, first China and then the Sudan, taking down dictators and rescuing innocents. He couldn't decide if he wanted to lock up Jong and Bashir in jail or throw them into the ocean where they had to swim to an island he made with his "mind magic" that was inhabited by large monsters. That would eat the dictators. That way P wouldn't be responsible for their deaths. It was quite the toss up. The socialist minded pacifist in me could only chuckle in awe. The rebuilding process for each country was rather humorous too. First he contemplated a puppet government run by the US, but this didn't seem quite right either and eventually it all veered towards anarchy... but supplemented by dolls to take care of the highways and energy production. Who they got their orders from is beyond me ;)

Then he combined all of these things before bed. He's suffering from the stomach flu (we were up puking and such last night and the night before :( ) and feeling a little off from it all. So he was unusually tired and angry that something didn't go his way last night before bed (missing autonomy in an anarchist is a big deal :). Generally being on the other side of his brief hitting period, he started swinging, big time. He ended up trying to smash our door down.... and was then unbelievably irked that he couldn't physically accomplish his goal despite putting his all into it :) He surprised me with a break in anger with this seeming non sequitur:
P: I'm Mad at god!!!
Me: Yah? Why's that P?
P: I'm mad at god! He took my super strength! I'm going to kill him and take His super strength.

I swear. I've lived an interesting enough life and see more and more of the world every year. But I'm pretty sure that the world of my four year old, despite the massive amounts of things he hasn't yet experienced or seen, is infinitely larger than mine, because Anything is possible in HIs universe...