While driving down the road just a few days ago, my son (seven years old) asked me a fun question, "Mom, have you ever ridden in a convertible?"  After thinking for a moment, I said, "Yes, but it’s been several years."  As you can imagine, he likes cars and thinks we should have a convertible.  I told him there are several reasons why we don’t have a convertible, one being that the weather in Kansas is such that there are several weeks out of the year that we wouldn’t be able to enjoy the "convertible" top.   

I wasn’t expecting his next comment.  He proclaimed, "I bet there are a lot of convertibles in Africa."  "Why do you say that?" I asked.  "Because it’s hot there.  They would have great weather for convertibles!"  After a few seconds of thinking "Should I go there or not?" I decided to expose my son to some harsh reality.  I briefly explained to him that there probably aren’t a lot of convertibles in parts of Africa because many of the people there are poor–not because they aren’t smart or hard-working, but because they live in societies where they either can’t own property or where their property can be taken away by those in power.   I gave him a little more context, but that was the gist of my explanation.

His response…"What’s the point in working or building a house or buying a car if someone could just come a take it from you?"  "Exactly," I said, "what’s the point?"