Ah, the innocence of youth! Our six year old recently posed a very interesting and insightful question -- "Mommy, do aliens have green blood???" We proceeded to discuss this inquiry from a scientific point of view. Kindergarten has changed quite a bit since Dad and I were in school, and our little scholar already knows that mammal blood is "blue inside, but red outside." Knowing that our blue veins and oxygen-exposed red blood both contribute to our coloring as humans, Mr. Scientist hypothesized that this must mean that green "alien" skin must receive its coloring from their green blood.
This was the end of our short discussion on the color of blood we may someday find to flow in our yet-to-be-discovered alien "brothers" as it was time to ride bicycles and giggle and eat popsicles again as all little boys should this time of year. Not long after, however, we found ourselves conversing with our elderly neighbor regarding her grandchildren. Our dear neighbor is blessed to be a great-grandmother already, so her grandchildren are not much younger than my husband and me. Neighbor "Grandma" as dubbed by our children was discussing how she questions the friends of her grandchildren as to whether they are "bathed in the blood or just in the water." Blood seemed to be the "hot topic" for our back porch this week!
Being raised in the church, I knew exactly what she meant. My dear husband had an idea, but wasn't sure. The children were not around, so I was not met with any of their usual questions after parting from our across-the-fence meeting. The "out of fashion" nature of our neighbor's comment was then followed with her second statement excusing her old ways, but justifying her right to feel as she does about her faith and religion.
As a child of the Methodist church, a teen of rebellion, and a now mother of two young sons, I feel that blood is a recurring theme in life. We all are familiar with the blood of Christ and the powers held within. The service of communion and the wine or juice you imbibe as symbolic blood. This blood is "good" blood, but I feel that more "bad" blood is in our faces more and more every day.
Had I been born in an earlier time, I feel strongly that I would have been the early bird collecting my newspaper to read over coffee. Today, as do many, I read the news during my weekdays on the internet. Unfortunately, what do I read about the most??? Blood. Not green blood, not Christ's blood, but the blood being shed by too many innocents. Young children struck down before their life even began. Teens killing other teens. Family members killing their own kin. Civil uprisings in distant lands with death tolls too high for me to even comprehend.
I restrict my news digesting to my day hours whilst sitting in front of two monitors for one major reason -- blood. There are evenings after I've read the bad news of the day when I feel that I cannot shake the negative emotions that are inevitably stirred by the headlines that always make their way to the top. I have discussed my news-induced depression with a dear friend, and his theory is that it's not the world that's changed, but the "size" of our world. The internet has brought stories to our knowledge that might not have been broadcast on your suppertime world news reports that are only able to include 30 minutes of journalism for both our country and the entire world we all share.
That being said, I reserve my home hours for my "small" world. Our children and their innocent questions. Our neighbor and her Baptist ways (please don't ever change, "Grandma!"). My dear husband with eight hours of pent-up "grown-up" conversation, talking to me all evening as if we'd just met. The occasional call or text from a local relative that I'm free to return at my leisure, even the following day. If there's any blood in my daily life, then I hope and pray every morning that it's either pondering with a child those with possible green, embracing those discussing Christ's, or just enough to be "fixed" with a magic Band-aid. ;)
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