Prophecy in a child's eyes

Not infrequently, Fintan’s thoughts turn to the future. On the matter, he is always sober and ruminative. He peers forward and seeks to imagine what he will find one future day. I usually find his views reasonable and likely. He seems to have a good grasp on what may happen. Is it logic that guides him, or intuition? I rather think it is the latter, from the way he seems to feel out a picture of tomorrow.

Yesterday, Fintan, 9, asked me:

“Do you think technology will keep on getting higher?” He seemed to be holding a hidden thought in his mind, as if he were seeking to measure his own thought, against mine, but was holding it back so that I wouldn’t be influenced by his.

“I think it will get better, yes...what do you think?” I held my thought lightly on my tongue, so that it would not pressure his into conformity.

“I think we will have better technology, but will use less of it.” He almost seemed to see this diminished world, before his inner sight.

“Why? Is that because of energy supply problems?”

“Yes.” He was both matter of fact and certain.

“So, although the technology is available, most people won’t be able to afford the energy for them?”

He just gave an affirmative nod, his silence holding an opinion about this yet to be seen world.

As with many conversations with Fintan, I found his conclusions uncomfortably likely. Whatever reasoning processes he went through, the outcome is quite a convincing possible tomorrow.

It is funny to hear him speak so. He is just 9 years old – and what, one wonders , can a 9 year old know of the world? Well, it seems he knows enough of TODAY, to anticipate a far TOMORROW, by some inner projection. He can see where the world is headed. What is darkly funny, of course, is that many of our leaders, with many more than just 9 years, don’t seem to be able to anticipate outcomes, with the same proficiency. He seems to be thinking more, in this way, than many do.

Is Fintan right? Do we face a diminished tomorrow, in which, although our powers of technology are greater, we simply don’t have the energy to power them, to the ubiquity we would like? Is technology to be rationed to the rich?

If we look around us and see that fossil fuels are running out; Uranium is in short supply, and renewables are just not ready, it does seem clear that Mankind faces an energy crisis in the decades ahead. A 9 year old child can sense this...so why are the world’s leaders not making more of it: why are they not preparing more actively for such a world by investing in alternative ways to power it?

The answer seems clear, my little 9 year old son, has a longer term view than most world leaders. Now, that IS sobering.

I like these chats with Fintan, for he prompts me to reflect on times ahead, some of which I may never see. It is good, though, that he considers the future he may one day live through. I think, he will have prepared himself, mentally, for the challenges ahead, for having modelled them, in advance. There is no better preparation than forethought – and Fintan does plenty of that.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

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Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

A way with words.

Fintan, eight, is a young boy of much whimsy. I am particularly fond of the way he expresses himself, with words, coming up, as he does, with striking expressions at times.

A couple of days ago, Tiarnan had been off school for three days in a row, sick. Fintan stood appraising his younger brother, then 5, with a somewhat cynical gaze.

“He’s coughing for freedom.”, he remarked, tellingly, on noting yet another seemingly theatrical cough from Tiarnan.

I had to laugh. That little sentence said so many things at once, about his outlook on Tiarnan’s situation. It had an admirable semantic density to it. As you probably note yourself, it spoke of Fintan’s belief that Tiarnan was not really sick and that his coughing was faked for the purpose of getting off school – and thus being “free” from constraint. Hence he is “coughing for freedom”.

It should be said, however, that Tiarnan did genuinely have a cough and a wheezy chest, which had woken him up in the night – so, as parents, we were not entirely mugs to allow him off school. However, Fintan believes otherwise, perhaps because Tiarnan is able to cough apparently on cue, when attention is upon him.

Fintan has made no indication of being interested in becoming a writer. However, as an observer of him, I have noticed that he is able to encapsulate thoughts in a pithy way and that he has his own characteristic style of expression. Furthermore, he likes to play around and joke with words, twisting their meaning to comic form. So, even though he hasn’t said he wants to be a writer, I do think it possible that, one day, he may very well be one – or at least someone who finds a creative use for words in life.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

The discerning logic of a child.

Before I became a father, I was unaware of the wonderful, often deliriously enchanting logic, that children use. To be able to witness such logic, now, on a regular basis, is one of the more refreshing and rewarding aspects of fatherhood.

Today, Fintan, eight, made some remarks about food.

“Fish is seafood.”, he announced, to no surprise.

“Chicken is meat.”, he continued, again, in the same deliberate manner, with a slight air of puzzlement.

“...but birds are AIRFOOD.”, he concluded, with perfect logic.

I exploded with laughter. It was such an unexpected categorization – yet so apt, that I had no choice but to laugh. Why, I wondered, had no-one else, in all my life, so described birds? They WERE “Airfood”. Yet, no-one speaks of them as such.

The perfect, ineluctable logic of children, often leads us to understand the hidden truths in the world around us – the things which are always there, but which we are not able to see. One of them is “air food”...it is a thought that has been implicit in the structure of the English language, since the very first day someone described fish as “seafood”...but, until now, perhaps, no-one has ever said it. Fintan is the first, to my knowledge, to describe birds as “airfood”.

It is intriguing to observe that, although the logic is clear and implicit in the words and their relationship to each other, in English – that no-one actually uses the term “airfood”. This seems to suggest that we don’t, as a society, think too logically about what our language is suggesting. We don’t see what is implicit within it. Today, it took a young boy to see that logic and remark upon it. Fintan saw what no adult, to my knowledge ever did – the implicit categorization lying in wait in the language itself, waiting to be spoken.

Thank you Fintan, for your description. From now on, in our household, birds shall be known as “airfood” in honour of Fintan’s uncannily appropriate thought.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Fintan's deft rejoinders.

Fintan, seven, is, as I have noted, before, a boy who surprises. He has a disarming manner which lulls one into a sense that all is to be as expected - and then he pounces with one of his characteristic unpredictabilities. If an "unpredictability" can be characteristic, of course.

Today, he bested me, twice, in conversation.

I was discussing reading with him. "Reading is the most important skill in life.", I opined, seriously.

"Reading?", he doubted, openly, "Not walking?", he continued, with one of his little smiles that says so much with so little.

He had me there. I imagined then, a life of utter immobility and compared it to a life of illiteracy. He was right: immobility was worse than illiteracy. The former quite deprived one of a rich life - the latter, however, might not affect one, anywhere near as drastically, if one's choices were carefully made.

He had won, without even trying. I just nodded, a little, in acknowledgement of his point.

Later that day I said: "I am going to buy a dog."

Fintan looked at me, his eyes sparkling, with amusement at what was to come. "You don't want to buy a dog, you should rent one."

Again, he had a point, for we are very unlikely to live in Malaysia for the length of a dog's life: what would we do then, when the time came to leave? He had identified the essential problem with my proposal - and proposed his own slightly whimsical solution.

I like the way he challenges my assumptions, points them out to me and punctures them. He does it so casually, as if, perhaps, it were an automatic reflex with him. I think it is, actually. I think he sees the problem with what is said to him, the moment it is said. He sees the cracks in things - the flaw that should be highlighted for a better understanding of the situation. It is a useful way to think, particularly if developed, as he grows up. It should allow him to avoid many a problem and to act, I should hope, with a certain care and wisdom.

In the meantime, I will continue to enjoy being defeated by my son's ripostes. It makes me smile, to hear him so.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.htmlI also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to:http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)