The dreams of a child genius

Of what does a child genius dream? Many a dream is lost before waking, so insubstantial do they seem when exposed to the first light of an opening eye...but sometimes, enough is left for memory to recall, and voice to speak of it.

This morning, November 30th, 2006, my son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy aged seven years and one week, turned to me, and said, immediately upon opening his eyes: "If our Sun was ten times smaller it would be a failed star, a brown dwarf."

It seems that this child genius dreams of the stars, and the Universe beyond and asks, as he sleeps, "What if things were other than they are?"

His mind is ever active, ever thinking, ever devising, ever asking and ever answering. Even in sleep, it does not rest, but ponders, ever more deeply, the questions of what the world is, and how it may be understood.

One reads of genius and of prodigy - but I do not think that bare academic accounts capture the sense of surprise that children with these characteristics display - you have to meet such a child and talk with them, to fully understand what a marvel it is for a child to be a prodigy or a genius. Speaking with Ainan, teaches me again, to wonder at the world and to hold its marvel in my heart and mind, as he does.

(If you would like to read more about my scientific child prodigy son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven (and one week!), and his gifted brothers, then please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted and gifted children in general.)