Give Him the Acorn!

We've always known that Ava was a tender-hearted soul. Does anyone remember the commercial during the Super Bowl where a little animal-mouse was used by a rabbit as a computer-mouse and got thrown around a bit? (click here to see it) That made Ava cry. Or have you seen The Sound of Music--the part where Maria finds a frog in her pocket, screams, and flings the poor creature to the ground? That one made Ava cry, too (though we're still not sure if it's out of empathy for Maria or the frog). In fact, until the past few months, she would get upset by any animal falling or getting hurt in a cartoon. It's actually quite sweet, and it's really made us so much more aware of the frequent use of physical, violent humor in today's media (okay, and from 1965, in the case of Maria..). I mean, are we really supposed to think it's funny to see a goofy, animated seagull slap around a crabby crab? Some sensitivity, please!

But today's episode really took the cake. This morning we made a visit to our new pediatrician's office, where the movie Ice Age was playing in the waiting room. I've never seen this movie, so I'll do my best to describe the scene:

A squirrel-like animal (with a long snout--what is that thing?) finds himself in Squirrel-like Animal Heaven. He swings open the pearly gates to find a cloudy dreamland of acorns as far as the eye can see. As he begins to gleefully gaze across the cloudscape, Ava looked at me with sad eyes and said, "He no find Mommy and Daddy. Where did Mommy and Daddy go?" I quickly assured her that he wasn't looking for his mom and dad (Darn all those cartoons about children losing their parents!), but that he was just going to eat the acorns.

Back to the movie: As the animal greedily gathers his treasures, he suddenly catches sight of the Holy Grail of acorns--a giant, floating, coppery acorn suspended in the feathery clouds. The animal begins to run to the huge acorn in slow motion, leaping joyfully through the clouds as the triumphant music swells. He reaches for the acorn, and just as his little paws are almost touching the shiny surface, he stops. An unseen force is pulling him away from that beautiful nut in the sky. He is terrified that he is about to lose his prize.

At this point, Ava looks crestfallen and says, "No, Mom. Nooo!"

Still grasping for the acorn, the animal is pulled farther and farther away until he is yanked through the gates, which then slam shut. He grips onto the gate with all his might, but the force is too strong and he loses his grip, finger by finger, until he is pulled away for good [I know: you're ALL emotional now reading this, aren't you?].

This is where you laugh, right? Because you realize the squirrel-guy was dreaming, and his little friend was pulling his tail to wake him up, and thus ruining his happy dream. Well, Ava looked at me and said in utter despair, "Mommy, he no eat acorn!" And then her face fell, and she began to sob.

And that's where I never know whether to laugh or cry. I mean, you have to admire a person who can have that much concern for another of God's creatures, right? That little squirrel thing really, really wanted that acorn, after all. Or maybe she just needs to watch more TV.