"Is that a killing song?"

To get home from school, Elias and I walk for about twenty minutes to the bus stop. Cara thinks it sounds like kind of a hassle, but I like walking, and it's nice to have a little while together to talk about our day. Earlier this week, there was a little lull in the conversation, and I started singing "Firing Squad" to myself, which is a song about the aftermath of the Iranian revolution. Elias asked, "Is that a killing song?" I found it kind of difficult to explain; I think Cara and I both feel like it's important to try to communicate things in an honest way to Elias, which means sometimes running up against some pretty complicated ideas. In the end, I told him that yes, it was partly a song about killing, but it was also about people feeling that they could act in whatever way they wanted without stopping to consider if they were right or wrong, and how important it is to think about those things. Then we went back to talking about animal crackers and comic books.