Thinking quick on my feet

My eleven-year-old daughter stopped me dead in my tracks earlier this week with an interesting question. "Mom, what's 'lust'?"

She was genuinely interested. True to my habit of being forthright with information when asked, I knew I had to come up with an answer. But sheesh, how do you explain lust to an eleven-year-old who has never attended public school and who doesn't watch television?

I had one of those rare, brilliant moments and came up with the following answer:

"Lust is what the bull feels for the cow when she's in heat. He doesn't love her; he simply wants to mate her."

My farm-bred daughter accepted this with nonchalance. But my curiosity got the better of me. "Where did you hear the term 'lust'?" I asked her, since that word is not in our daily vocabulary.

It turns out she had come across a list of the Seven Deadly Sins (lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride). Ah, enlightenment.