“IT’S OUR PROBLEM FREE PHIL-O-SOPHY”

My daughter, Brandi, as a very young kid, was known for turning her questions about life into theories.

It was back in 1994, when we went to see the original Lion King that a theory of life and death came to her. She didn’t share it then but a few years later when my mother died – we heard it delivered in non-stop cadence.

“Where did Grandma Smiley go?” she inquired, softly.

“Well,” I began my well planned parental response about death. – I didn’t get past the

“Well. . . .”

“Just like Mufasa went to heaven – that’s where Granma is.” she said in a tone that gave the impression she knew exactly what she was talking about.

“Will she speak to me from the sky like Mufasa talked to his baby Simba?”

“Is she going to talk to me from the sky ?”

While this, at first, sounded to me like questions, I soon realized Brandi wasn’t really looking for answers.

She was going somewhere with these inquiries. She had a theory.

“When can I look in a pool and see Granma Smiley like when Simba went to drink water and saw Mufassa’s face in a pool?.

She was beginning to sound a little bit demanding.

“Mom” she said, pronouncing my name with a bit of impatience, “ I can be Simba and run, run far away, across the desert. ”

“I remember,” she mused, “ Simba kept running and running – Scar his bad uncle told him to go.”

“Will somebody tell me to run?

“Will I go?”

Brandi was on a role. A six year old’s theoretical roll – it seemed she was prepared to relive the entire Lion King story; non-stop

Mufassa’s reflection in the pool and his talking from the sky seemed my best shot for a reality transition.

Rafiki, the wise baboon in this favorite story of  her’s was fond of saying, “it is time”

I tried it.

“It is Time – quiet time.” I said with what I thought was a calming tone. I needed time. It’s not everyday one’s mother dies.

“Granma Smiley always said I was a lovely girl.  If I’m quiet, will she tell me that again?”

Quiet time had not come – as I thought it would.

Brandi now pulled out a stack of paper and a box of crayons. She was drawing clouds with images floating in them.

A definite true scene from the movie.

“Here’s the circle of life and over here is the baby Simba and they are in the cloud with the circle and then here comes Granma Smiley.”

“See – she’s right there!”

Brandi was pointing to the cloud she’d drawn with a cartoon like sketch of my mother’s head topped with a mangled looking lion’s mane

“Sometime people die and sometime people are born. And sometimes lions die and sometimes lions are born and some time flowers die and sometime we have to plant seed. . . “

When was she going to remember it was time. Quiet time?

“My butterfly died because the wing was broken and it couldn’t fly to find food and I didn’t know how to feed it and. . . . and. . . and”

She would have kept going, forever, with this; her theory of life and death

For my own sanity, I had no choice but to interrupt, “It is Time, to give grandma a chance to speak and we’ll need to have silence to hear her.

“NO, I don’t want to talk to her now, she just died and needs to rest.”

“When I take my bath tonight, her face will come in the tub, like Mufassa came in the pool IF we don’t use any bubbles – grandma will talk to me from the water.”

Young children have an amazing capacity to talk forever BUT also to see death – on their own terms- when we adults can step back, stay silent and let the mystery unfold.

Twenty some years later, now an adult, Brandi’s still running off at the mouth about Lion King  – the new release. .

She’s no longer theorizing about life and death but instead is focusing her attention on the technical aspects of the current production.

“Well, okay, aside from your telling me that the CG, cast, Beyonce as Nala, lack of vibrant colors and characters not being as expressive as the originals, was there a lesson?” I asked.

“Hakuna Matata” she answered with a look that said “You’re not understanding.” And then had the nerve to remind me that those words mean no worries for the rest of my days.

“Death?” I inquired.

“Hakuna Matata,” she repeated and went on to raise her voice to the song’s other lyrics, ” It’s a problem free philosophy.”

See Lion King 2019 trailer here