The boys and I got to talking history the other day in the car, about different wars and grudges and that kind of thing. It started from the question of why some countries never seem to get along.

“Well,” I said, “some wars went on so long that all you knew during your lifetime was war.”

“No way,” my oldest said.

“Yep. There was even a hundred years war. Can you imagine that? Toward the end of that war, your father, grandfather, and great grandfather all would have fought in it. It’s all you would know.”

“Oh man,” he said. “Those countries must hate each other!”

“No,” I said. “They’re allies now. In fact, England helped liberate France during World War II.”

“Yeah,” he said. “But the people don’t like each other, do they?”

“I don’t think it’s that big of a problem. In fact, you have some French ancestry, in addition to your Scottish and Irish.”

“No way!”

“Yep. For that matter, the Scots and the Irish never got along that well, either.”

“Wow.”

“Not only that,” I said, warming to the subject. “You even have some German in there. The Germans conquered France during WWII.”

“No way!”

“Yep. Scot and Irish and French and German and Greek… It’s all in there.”

“No wonder my brother and I fight so much!”

Hm. I’d never thought of it that way.