I'm reading the younger one his bedtime stories, which this week happen to be biographies of Giants in Medicine (he wants this--I am not trying to encourage a career in medicine. I swear. There's a punch line in there, but it'd be pretty feeble, so I won't go for it). So we're reading about Joseph Lister, pus, carbolic acid, etc., and he says to me, "Why does God make infections and cuts?" Only he's dysfluent, so it takes him awhile to get it out, while I can see this Fundamental Question coming round the bend.

I punted, more or less. Said I didn't know, said some people think God's ways are not our ways. Y'know, what people say. So he said, "I think God is a little mean." I had no real response to that, either.