Sic Semper Tyrannis

So today Jake brought home a "My State Book" about Utah. It was nice. State flower, state bird, state tree, state animal, state song, state symbol. Nice.

I thought it would be cool for him to make one about Virginia. Call us crazy, but Steve and I are still in love with the homeland. Some of the stuff I already knew. State flower/tree - dogwood. State bird - cardinal. State animal - no state animal. We've got a state dog and oh, this is cool (thank you google) a state insect - the tiger swallowtail butterfly. (look it up.) State song - Carry Me Back to Old Virginny (the lyrics of which we will not be writing in the state book and it seems that state legislators have been looking to replace since the song hit emeritus status in 1997). State symbol - the great seal of Virginia (see left).

It is this great seal and the latin-eese written on it that prompt today's post. How would you explain this graphic to an interested five year old who immediately questions (especially when it is compared with the oh-so-industrious (and obvious) beehive) what is that lady doing? is that guy dead? why is she standing on him? Tyrannis? Like the dinosaur?

So, Sic Semper Tyrannis means - Thus Always with Tyrants. Which in five year old equals - Good Guys Always Beat Bad Guys. That lady is, yes, standing on that dead guy's body because she is the symbol of virtue - or the Book of Mormon word - righteousness - and he's well, dead, because he's the bad guy. Tyrannis means bad guys - kind of like Tyrannosaurus was a pretty bad dinosaur.

He's totally on board with this. Tells Sam all about it when he gets home from school. Side note: 5 year old latin is hysterical!

Then tonight during family scripture we were talking about how Alma's people (Mosiah 23) help the lost Lamanite army find their way home and then the Lamanites break their promise of freedom and set up guards around them and make this totally rotten guy Amulon the king over them. At the conclusion of the chapter - it's a cliffhanger - you don't know how this is all going to shake out. But I looked at Jake and I said, but what did we learn today about bad guys?

Good guys always beat bad guys with the Book of Mormon clarification - if and when they remember their God, keep the commandments, and say their prayers. And listen to their mom. In other words: And it came to pass - Sic Semper Tyrannis! Amen. (which incidentally the children have spontaneously decided to all say as Ah-men instead of AA-men. Not sure why.)

happy random tuesday. love, M