Non-Rhetorical Rhetorical Question: noun. A question that a child asks, and expects an answer, but there either is no answer or the answer is difficult to explain.
When I was a child, I (or one of my sisters?) asked my mother about the difficult concept of love. She said she loved us, but the love she had for our dad was different. To an adult, that's pretty simple. To a child...not so much.
So the other day, Monkey Son #1 said, "I want to marry you."
"You can't," I replied. "I'm already married."
"But don't you love me?" he asked.
How do I respond to that? And yet, the strange questions do not end there. How about, "Are hot things really cold?" Well, I can grasp that something that's hot and something that's cold can both have a burning sensation. But you'd think you wouldn't have to explain hot and cold...
1 comment:
Growing up my sister was convinced that she was going to marry my mom when she grew up. It was cute because she didn't understand, but entirely impossible.
It's those tough questions that keep us on our toes!
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