The Only Person I Hate

Yesterday, as we were driving home from a Vacation Bible School day during which we learned about serving our friends, I had an interesting conversation with my children on the subject of hate.  You see, I asked them if they had made any friends at VBS, and our neighbor who was riding with us casually mentioned that everyone was his best friend.  I mean everyone.  At school, at church, in the neighborhood, you name it.  Every kid he knew was tied for first place as his best friend.

“Even the people you hate?” my daughter asked him incredulously.

“Well, I don’t actually hate anyone,” he replied.

“But EVERYone hates SOMEone!” she insisted, and since she is going into the second grade, she would know.

“Ruby,” I said to her in a warm and fatherly tone, “who do you hate?”  I said this because I was very curious.  She named two boys in her class, and so I said to her “You know, when you hate someone it means that you want bad things to happen to them.  It’s okay not to like someone, and to not agree with someone, but when you really hate someone it takes up a lot of your time and energy, because you want to go out of your way to hurt that person.  Now, do you really hate those boys?”  I expected her to realize that she, in fact, did not hate those boys, but instead she told me that she couldn’t decide and she would need more time to think about it.

“I only hate one person!” chimed in my previously silent four-year-old.

“Oh yeah?” I asked him, “Who do you hate?”

Without hesitation he looked right at me and said “Dick Cheney.”

I almost lost it and crashed the car right there.  “What?!” I managed to get out.  “Do you even know who that is?!”

“I just really hate Cheney,” he informed me, with no further clarification forthcoming.  And I swear to you, I have never mentioned Dick Cheney to him!  I know he was in the news recently for saying something stupid, but I scrolled past all of those posts!  I never even clicked on them!  How has he heard of Dick Cheney, and why does he hate him?!

Well, at least I know he learned something in Vacation Bible School…