In Defense of Ants...

I was sitting with my good friend, Kathy, in the living room the other day when Devon walked downstairs, twisting his arm this way and that. "What are you doing?" I asked him. Instead of answering, he held out his arm to present me with a huge black ant which was presently running the length of his arm.

"Oh, my God!" Kathy exclaimed. "Kill it!" She yelled so loud that Devon immediately dropped the ant in terror. "I dropped it!" he yelled even louder. This, in turn, caused Kathy to jump up and scream even louder. Through all the mayhem, I managed to find the ant and carefully return it to Devon's hand before it was unwittingly the victim of the heel of a shoe.

Devon turned to Kathy and said, "I don't want to kill it. I want to keep it as a pet." She made a face and said, "That's disgusting," while I silently smirked in my seat. My seven-year-old son then began his tirade: "It's not disgusting... It's a live creature and it has feelings, too, you know...How do you know it doesn't find YOU disgusting?" I intervened at this time to remind Devon that he is to be respectful, even though he was arguing his point. Kathy shrugged her shoulders. "I should know your family by now, " she said. "You wouldn't kill anything that moved or had a face!"

Though Kathy was exaggerating just a bit (True, I HATE spiders!), it just goes to show that children can learn compassion at any age. Having gone through a similar situation once before involving an ant and my then young daughter, I am grateful for Devon's attitude. Jillian is now a caring, sensitive, 12-year-old, who regularly keeps a good deeds journal to help fight hunger in our state. Devon's concern for his ant may someday turn into concern for a larger animal. This may then turn into concern for the homeless person he sees on the street or the young child he sees with no food. Compassion IS a learned trait and it has to start somewhere. It needs to be practiced in the home for a child to make it part of his personality.

"My ant is not gross," Devon argued when Kathy said as much. "I bet you don't like him 'cause he crawls on you and ruins your picnics." Kathy knew she was revving Devon up, winked at me and responded, "As a matter of fact, that's EXACTLY why I don't like ants. They are always trying to eat my potato salad!" Devon, unaware that she was playing with him, sat down as the ant ran the length of his arm again. I noticed her shudder as she watched it. "Well," he attempted to explain. "They have to get their food where they can, you know. No one wants to feed an ant so they have to take what they can get. How would YOU like it if you couldn't eat because of the way you looked?" I had to admit, he had a point there.

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