What is Beauty? (Again)

I tried to post on Beauty, yesterday, but today I observe that no post appeared. How uncanny. No record of it appears on my saved posts, either.

It seems that such a question cannot be asked on a blogger console.

I will, therefore, tell the tale again.

Two days ago, we went to Fort Canning Park, in Singapore. This is a converted military fort with all the old fortifications in place, but now purposeless. It provides a very interesting and architecturally stimulating environment with, as you might expect from a fortified hill, good views and pleasant walks.

That, however, was not the highlight of my day which provoked me to write.

I had given a bottle of water to Tiarnan, 21 months, who ran off with it to drink in peace. After a minute or so, he sat down on the grass, legs splayed in a V and continued to quaff his drink. Suddenly, without any warning, he tipped the whole bottle of water over his head - then laughed loudly, freely, purely, as the water coursed over his head, down his face and onto his clothes.

It was a beautiful moment seeing him revel so in the sensations the water created. Perhaps he just wanted to feel what the water would be like on him, in that moment. Or perhaps he was just hot, on this typical Singapore day, in which the heat never relents. Whichever it was, his freedom in simply tipping a load of water over himself and laughter at the feeling, was most sweet to see.

He stood up then, his wet clothes clinging to him, along with sand and soil from the ground and ran over to me.

He couldn't have been happier - and neither could I.

Beauty is many things. For me, this is Beauty. Perhaps, if you are a parent, you too will share this view.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eleven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and four months, and Tiarnan, twenty-one months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)