That's a Good Question

Zachary, my 6 year old, has always been very inquisitive and analytical.  I remember him telling me that he sang "the old lady who swallowed a fly" in preschool one day, and  just could not understand why that lady would eat *all* of those things, just to get rid of a fly.

As he's gotten older, his questions most often turn to superheroes, the most common question being the "Who would win" question.  "Who would win, batman or spiderman?"... "Who would win, Superman, or that guy who can't get hurt?" (That would be Wolverine)  but sometimes they would branch out to, "who would you rather be?"  or "who is your favorite?"

These questions require a lot of brain power on my part.   It takes a considerable thought to compare all of the individual powers of each superhero & then have an imaginary fight in your head in order to answer a question like that.  "Well, spiderman could catch batman with his web - but batman is very clever and always finds a way out of every problem.  Plus, he's got those throwing star things, to cut himself out of the web. but spiderman..... wait a minute, does Batman have Robin with him?  because that would put the odds in his favor..." 

You can see why these questions might become a bit tiresome for me.  So when Zachy started finding new subjects to ask about, i was relieved.  And then I went from relief to laughter, because his thought process is so random.  Allow me to share with you some examples from a recent car ride.  --and while you read them, keep in mind that these were all asked in a time span of about 15 minutes while we drove from the store back to our house.  As soon as I would answer one question, he's ask the next:

*  If you didn't need food or water, and you couldn't open your mouth for your whole life, would you live?
*  Would your mouth get hot?
*  Is it cool the way your body works?
*  Why?
*  Who was the first person alive after the flood?
*  Why is your breath hot? (this one apparently didn't get a satisfactory answer, because he still continues to ask questions about how our breath gets hot when we breath in cold air, and it's hardly spent any time in our body before we breathe it out)
*  How do spiders make webs?
*  If you shot an arrow really hard right through your pupil, would it go to the other side of your eye?
*  How do you get throw up?
*  Why do they make chapstick so yummy if you can't lick it off?
*  Which is importanter:  Christmas or Sunday?
*  If we didn't have the word, "ow," what would we say when we got hurt?
*  Why do people buy scarecrows? 
*  Why are they called scarecrows if they scare other kinds of birds?
*  Aren't our eyes like windshield wipers?
*  Why is every question that people don't know the answer to, a "good question?"

And now I find myself wishing he would go back to asking me simple superhero questions.

So how about you?  Which is your favorite question and how would you answer it?  And for 5 bonus points, who would win, Superman or Ironman?  --and for the sake of argument, let's assume that Ironman does not have access to any kryptonite.