Super Heroes with Laser Beam Eyes

I feel a little silly posting about the trivialities of my daily life in light of the bombings at the Boston Marathon yesterday.  I don't have anything really insightful to add -

Unlike the Newtown massacre at Christmastime, this time, my kids were not immune from the news.  It's a hard conversation to have.  Even without visual images infiltrating your mind.  We were flipping through radio stations when Casey heard a piece of news about the bombs.  I changed the station- but not fast enough.

So we talked about it a little.  The kids wanted to know if our family is okay.  (My extended family is in the New England area; my parents are from Boston; my grandparents still live there.)  They are, I presume.  Seems unlikely my almost 90-year-old grandfather ventured out to cheer on marathoners.

Then we talked about who launched the attack.  The not-knowing is not very comforting - especially for kids who sometimes see the world as a big, scary place.  Plus, kids (at least my kids) have such a heightened sense of justice and fairness, and someone hurting people for no reason is definitely not in the realm of fair.

As we drove to school today, Casey told me he wished he were a super hero.

"What kind?" I asked, half-listening as I made my way through morning traffic.

"I'd want laser beam eyes," he explained.  "One red and one green."

"What would you do with them?"

"With them, I would be able to tell who the bad guys are and I'd laser them to death," he responded.

Sigh.  If only we could tell about the character of a person by looking deep inside them.  If only.

After school, Casey and I talked about all the helpers.  The people who ran toward the blasts.  His eyes grew wide as I told him about the everyday people who stepped up to help the injured.  We talked about how brave those people were.   We talked about how we have a responsibility to the people around us. But I know he already felt that deep inside.  That's why he wants those Laser Beam Eyes.