Merry Christmas, 2009

Merry Christmas, wherever you are in the world!

This year, we find ourselves in a new country, for Christmas. We didn't really expect this, last Christmas...but events led us overseas, in the course of the past year. For those who haven't been reading recently, we are now in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This is a big city, compared to Singapore (in area and feel) and one that, we feel, has more to offer us, just now. As yet, I am new here, so I am forebearing to comment on many things, until I understand, better, what this country is all about. However, I have seen much, so far, that is promising. I think our time, here, shall prove interesting.

The biggest surprise is that Christmas is actually celebrated in Malaysia, when it is a widely known Muslim country. In every supermarket, there are Christmas trees and crackers, Christmas pudding and mince pies - and every traditional accompaniment of Christmas is available on sale. I think this is a hopeful sign for the nature of the society in which we find ourselves. It is an effort at inclusiveness that the festivals of other religions should be openly celebrated and supported. Indeed, in the newspapers, a Malaysian politician was quoted as encouraging Malaysians to spread the Christmas spirit! It is quite refreshing to see such inclusiveness. I hope it is more than skin deep, for, if it is, then Malaysia will prove to be a society that welcomes others from all over the world. I shall wait to see if this is so, in the months ahead.

The only thing that is missing from Christmas, in Malaysia, is snow. But then, I very much doubt whether Malaysia has snowed for many thousands of years, if at all. So, we shall have to do without snow, this December. However, I should note that, though White Christmases were common in my childhood, they have become rarer in the land of my birth, in recent years, since global warming took hold. Indeed, I don't think any of my children have ever seen snow. In a way, that is sad, because snow provides memories of wonder, in most childhoods of my generation. I hope, one day, then, that my children have a White Christmas and get to build their own snowman. Here's hoping.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight 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, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals. If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

A yearning for snow.

My children have never seen snow. They have never known its white mystery falling in silence. They have never felt its surprising chill against the skin, what looks so soft, and welcoming, biting, hard.

When Ainan went to England, before Fintan was born, he said that he wanted to see snow. In all the time he was there, it never snowed once. He left England, as he had arrived: without seeing a single crystal of snow fall.

I am reminded of this, today, because, back in England, they are having the most extreme snowfall for the past 18 years. There are up to 12 inches of snowfall in parts of England, including the South-East, where it is usually less likely to fall. People are snowbound, unable to move from their homes. The roads are impassable. Only children would find it wonderful - but my children are, once more, not there to see it.

I stood before a world map, a couple of weeks ago, with Fintan, and asked him where in the world he would like to go. He looked at it, for the briefest time, quickly deciding what he wanted from the world and pointed at the map. His fingertip touched Greenland.

"It is very cold there, Fintan."

He said nothing, but looked further at the map.

Then he pointed again, this time his fingertip touched Antartica.

"I want to go there.", he said, with a sense of yearning in his eyes.

I didn't have the heart to tell him how difficult it was to visit such places, beautiful though they would be.

"One day, Fintan, one day..."

He continued to look at the map, for some while, his eyes switching between Greenland and Antartica, drinking in their whiteness (for the map had made it clear that they were lands of ice and snow).

I see in Fintan's yearning and Ainan's, too, a need to know the unknown, to experience the unexperienced. They both share this characteristic. Fintan didn't want to go anywhere "normal". He had known normal all his life. He had lived at the Equator and in Europe. He didn't want such places and such climates. He wanted a world of extremes, of brutal cold and devilish ice and the silence of eternally falling snow. That, for him, held magic.

I left him with the map, having learnt something. I thought it revealing that both brothers should share the same aspiration, though we had never spoken of the subject, together and I don't think they had either. They had independently come to the same view of what would make an interesting place to be.

One day, I hope to show them snow. One day, I hope to see them play in its white wonder and witness the silence of its fall.

I know one thing for sure: it won't happen if we stay in Singapore!

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight 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, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)