5-year-old philosophising

When I arrived at kinder to pick up E, my 5-year-old, at lunchtime, the teacher's assistant drew me aside and said, "I have to tell you something."

Concerned, I quickly said "Is everything OK?" The sight of my 5-year-old sitting peaceably on the mat waiting for me suggested it was, but hey, it's never a great conversation opener when kids are involved.

"Oh yes," the assistant said, grinning broadly, "I just thought you'd be tickled by this... Earlier on, E was building a big block tower with her friend M. They'd got it really high when another child knocked it over accidentally."

"Oh," I interspersed, expecting a tale of Much Woe. "I hope E wasn't too upset...?"

"Well," the teacher went on, "just at that moment, I called out that it was pack-up time. M and E had both looked like they were going to get upset but they stopped and turned to each other.

M says to E, 'Never mind, it was going to be knocked down anyway, wasn't it?'
E says, 'Yes, yes it was. Nothing lasts forever, does it.'
M: 'Nothing. Except friendship, especially OUR friendship. IT will last forever...'
E: 'And love, it lasts forever too.'
M: 'If it's true love.'
E: 'Oh yes. Only then.'
M: 'But nothing else lasts forever, does it?'
E: 'No, nothing.'
Pause.
E: 'Maybe stardust, as well. I think it does.'
M: 'Yes, I think so too.'
E: 'And this damn nasty cold we've all got, that goes on forever too.'
M: "Mmmmm...?'
E: 'That's what my Mum says, anyway.'

I had to stop myself laughing," the assistant concluded, as I chuckled at this tale of existential musing in the preschool set.