Circle of Life

I’ve been reveling in my HD TV goodness lately and to take advantage of it I’ve been downloading HD episodes of Planet Earth. It’s an awe-inspiring series to begin with but in high definition it’s jaw-dropping. So much so that when Mia saw a clip of one, she was instantly hooked and wanted to watch more.
And then a giant crocodile dismembered a wildebeest.
Mia watched, eyes glued to the television with a look of profound concern on her face.
Mia: Did that crocodile eat that cow?
Me: Wildebeest. And yes.
Mia: That wasn’t nice.
Mia: You understand that to live some things need to eat other things?
Me: Yes.
Mia: And out in wild animals hunt and kill and eat other animals.
Me: Yes. It still wasn’t nice.
A couple of nights later, we watched another. Ten minutes in I could tell that Mia wasn’t totally engaged. She looked wary.
Me: Do you like this one?
Mia: It’s okay. But is something going to kill something else to eat it soon?
Me: I’m not sure. Why, did that bother you?
Mia: No.
Me: You want to see animals eat each other?
Mia: Yeah! I do!
Me: I’m sure something will get killed and eaten soon.
Mia: Really?
Me: Yeah, I mean, look at that big fish. That’s just a meal waiting to happen.
And then the head of one large fish was bitten off by the head of a gigantic fish, Mia was happy and all was right with the world.
We’re just going to skip a few steps and watch Pulp Fiction tonight.
(No, we won’t.)
(Oh, and who knew wildebeest was spelled that way? I never would have guessed.)