I got myself into a little fix - "what shall I do?"

One day on our family vacation - when I came back from my morning walk, coffee and a morning bun with my youngest grandson - I was met by two frantic grandchildren and their concerned parents.

It seems that while I was gone my almost five year old grandson had shared with his 7 year old girl cousin a conversation he had had with me on a walk the week before. Now with my return to the house they expressed their worry about my possible demise at the hands of some evil people involved in a war. The seven year old met me at the door, "they won't kill you - will they grandpa?" "What?" "Sage says they are killing people. They won't kill you - will they grandpa?"

Grandma came to my rescue reminding me of my conversation with Sage the past week when he was staying with us. Looking at me, the parents, me, she said, “You should explain grandpa.”

On our walk I had told Sage how angry I was about the on going war in Iraq and how I was going to go and tell our leaders that they needed to stop getting people killed and how I was going to go to Washington and tell them that this craziness needs to stop, NOW! etc, etc, etc.

Sage seemed pretty into it at the time and I was letting off some steam.

It seemed like a good idea to share my plans with him on our walk that day.

I was thinking about how my wife and I had taken our youngest child on marches against guns in the neighborhood and in support of the farmworkers. I was thinking about how I had marched in the city before the war started. I was thinking about how I wanted Sage to have some outrage of his own about the injustices that we face each day and the injustices he would face.

I wasn't thinking about how this would translate to a 5 year old and I certainly wasn't thinking about what their parents would think about my conversation when they couldn't get their kids to sleep at night because they thought their grandfather would be killed on his mission.

I sat down and explained to my grandchildren that no one was going to kill me and that I was not going to the place where the war was but to Washington D.C. where our leaders work. I told them I was just going to join with others in protest to the war and I was not going to get hurt in any way.

The grandkids took the explanation well and the parents seemed to be understanding, again, of my slightly bad judgment in what I said/say to their kids.

But I am not out of the woods yet.

Today when I saw my granddaughter (a full two weeks after my explanation talk) she ran up to me and whispered, "grandpa, have you gone to talk to them about the war yet?"

Before I answered I had to make a decision - a quick decision. I paused... and thought...

"No Rose, I am going to do that in the Fall" and I will - for the sake of my grandchild

Reporting from our small, but important, place in the world