Sophia Talks Ontology with The Poet

We have just returned from glorious Krakow, a city of poets. The place is unreasonably beautiful, the population unceasingly literary (the face of Czeslaw Milosz is visible upon posters hanging in the front windows of bookshops; the local playshop is performing something written by or related to Zbiegniew Herbert).

That said, The Poet for us is Adam Zagajewski, who along with his exquisite wife Maya, made the city accessible to our crazy band of Bakken gypsies (infamous across the Balkans, and now along the Baltic, for our ruthless sacking of cities): finding us a spacious apartment and introducing us to the mushrooms of Poland (who knew the Italian porcini, for which I have enormous expectations, have now been unseated by their wild Polish cousins Boletus edulis, the "borowik"?).

We had told Sophia and Alexander that the legend of Krakow's founding involved dragons, or the slaying of dragons, and that they might reasonably expect to find dragon eggs...or even "real" dragons in Poland. Indeed, after about ten minutes of investigation in the city park across from our apartment they returned with grubby handfuls of "dragon nuts" (walnuts that were probably scattered for the benefit of the local squirrels), which they presented to The Poet with great pride.

From the park, we began a leisurely stroll through the old city toward Castle Wawel, where Adam and Maya told us we would see an actual fire-breathing dragon. With her pockets stuffed with dragon nuts, her excitement growing at every step, the mind of Sophia began whirling with expectations and questions:

Sophia: "Do dragons really eat people?"

Dad: "I don't really know, but I suppose they might if you steal their dragon nuts."

Sophia: "Will the Krakow dragon eat us."

Dad: "I hope not."

Then a pregnant pause.

Sophia: "Are dragons real, Daddy."

Dad: "I don't know, Sophia, what do you think?"

This answer did not satisfy her, so she put it to The Poet:

Sophia: "Are dragons real, Adam?

Adam: [without missing a beat]: "Well, Sophia, that depends on how you define the nature of reality."

Not much for philosophical ambiguity, Sophia replied with a vaguely satisfied "hmmm," then remained speechless for at least two minutes (which is, we all know, almost unheard of....).

Christopher