I drove my daughter back to school in Bellingham on Friday. On the way back I hike at Deception Pass and then stop in Coupeville before going to the ferry. In Coupeville, I found friends for Mordechai, my clinic skeleton. This is a sea lion and there is a whale and a dolphin, all skeletons hanging from the ceiling. I suspect that they are real skeletons and not plastic, as Mordechai is.
My daughter says, “Mordechai was not alive before.”
“I could argue that she was. She is made from plastic, which is made from oil, which is formed over millennia from plants fallen and slowly changing.”
“Ok, you win on that one, mom.”
Doesn’t this sea lion look like she is flying?
KO Rural Mad As Hell Blog 
What a lovely argument with your daughter. More evidence that genotype and environment together build the phenotype :)
My parents would frame it as discussion and disagreeing to share ideas: thinking about the world and opening up thoughts about it.
I guess I tend to use the word argument in a technical sense. Should be more careful about this.
I agree absolutely that argument is correct but many people think of that as negative, rather than interesting and thought provoking.
No argument there.
Understanding and collaborative agreement achieved! Now, if we could just get congress to act like us…