One of my earliest memories.

My earliest memories are quite surprising in a way. It is commonly held that people don’t have memories before the age of three or so – but I don’t believe that. My experience and that of my children, suggest that much earlier memories are possible, for some people.

One of my earliest memories places me in a baby’s cot. I don’t know how old I was exactly, but I can deduce from the limitations on my movement that it was very early – certainly in the first few months of life. I remember lying down staring up into the air above my cot – and waiting, in expectation. I was waiting for the dust motes in the air, to appear again. I knew that if a shaft of light crossed above my cot, in just the right way, then little tiny things would become visible in the air. Of course, I didn’t know what they were – but I could see them, at such times. Whenever I saw them, I would reach up to them, to try to catch them, between my finger and thumb.

Looking back, now, on this early memory, I am struck by the coordination I displayed: I really was able to control my hand and target these dust motes, with the pincer movement of my finger and thumb. I am also struck by something else. I recall, very clearly, thinking that I knew when the light would return (the next day, at the worst) and the dust motes would be visible again. I had an understanding of the passage of time, and knew something of the cyclical nature of the pattern of light. I also recall having memories, then, of earlier times on which I had seen the dust motes. So, I had a definite “memory line” into the past, even in my first few months – and I had conscious access to it.

There is something else clear about this memory. I was alone, in that cot, in that room, for what seemed like long periods, for me. I didn’t cry or complain – or cannot recall doing so, whilst I waited for the dust motes, so I assume that my parents thought me content and left me to myself, in those periods. The texture of my thoughts, then, is still clear to me now. I recall being very alert indeed, studying the tiniest nuance in my environment. I believe I was looking for changes – and the only things changing were the pattern of light and the dust motes – other than that, the room was static. My thoughts don’t seem childish in recall. They seem very focussed and attentive – and, what is more, analytical. I was analyzing my environment and trying to discover ways it could be interacted with and manipulated – yet all I was moving, was my hands.

So, on that early occasion, I was already conscious of my past, conscious of the passage of time and the cyclical nature of day and night, able to reflect on my memories and compare them with the present, able to coordinate my hands, precisely – and able to analyze my environment. I was also aware of my self, as a being, in that situation, reflecting on my world. This is not how we are told to see little children. Yet, that is how I remember my thoughts at the time.

I have other early memories, too – but I shall think carefully before describing them, here. I thought it best to put this one on record, in case I never get around to recording my early memories, just to leave an account of how I was thinking at this early stage.

I wonder: what you are your early memories? Please leave tales of your early thoughts and feelings, below.

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/

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.) 

On making a record.

Childhood only happens once. My children will grow up and become adults in a time too brief to truly comprehend. I cannot believe that Ainan has just turned 12, for instance, a few weeks ago. He is getting so tall – indeed he is challenging his mother, in stature. Yet, to me, I still see the baby in him, first peering at the world, in infinite curiosity. It seems but an instant, in which his entire life has been compressed, and in which he has expanded to his present height, personality and intellect.

Childhood speeds by so quickly – it is like lightning – it flashes and then it is gone. That is why I have written, almost daily, these past five years or more, to create a record of my impressions of my children, as they grow up. I have no such document for my own childhood. Very few people do, I imagine. Yet, when my children are adult, I will be able to show them their childhoods, as I witnessed them, felt them, thought of them, all those years ago. That is why I write – and that is why what I write is important. It serves two primary purposes – it keeps those in our family and circle of friends, acquainted with the latest developments in our children’s lives and it also will, one day, become a source of much self-knowledge, for my children – for they will get to see themselves as they were seen, by me (and my wife).

Some people don’t understand why I write this blog – particularly strangers, who might read it. I have decided to make this a public blog, because I am a writer, too. My understandings of family life, are the material I draw on – and I am sharing that, as a means to express what I come to learn. So, in that sense, it forms a different kind of record – a record of my thoughts, on childhood, children and family. At the time of writing, this may not seem an important thing to do – but I think that, one day, it shall be of interest to those who are interested in my work. You see, I have written many things, too, that have not yet been published. Those works are likely to be of wider interest. People who like those books, may wish to understand their writer, better. They will find this blog of some value in that regard. So, to give perspective to my other works, I write a public blog, which can express something of who I am and what I understand. In time, there will be people who appreciate that I have taken the time to write, as I have. Of course, some people already appreciate that I am taking the time, regularly, to write my thoughts, on many matters, not just family life.

It is my intention to record the childhood of my sons until they have grown up. I hope that they see value in the efforts I have made, one day. I know that I would very much value such a record of my own childhood, were it to exist. I cannot say who else will value these words. I write for those who do. Thank you.

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.)

A memory of childhood.

A few weeks ago, my wife, Syahidah, was reminiscing.

“One day, when I was nine years old, I came to understand something: as an adult, you have a choice. I wanted to remember this, when I grew up, so I said to myself: remember this – as an adult you have a choice.”

Her gaze was curiously inward and a little fond, as if touched by the little girl she had been.

“Well, you did remember.”

“Yes.”, she said quietly, pleased.

I was touched by this account. It was a sweet notion, that the little girl she had been, should try to communicate with the adult she was to become, by deliberately seeking to remember an insight she had had, into adulthood. It struck me as quite a mature thing to do for the little girl she had been. It meant that she understood the unfolding of life and what she would one day become. It also meant that she felt a need to speak to her older self, when she was no longer around to be able to do so. It meant she sought a sense of continuity between the present, that would one day be past, and the future that had not yet become.

Syahidah grew a little rueful beside me, as she dwelt on her younger self’s thought.

“Of course, when you become an adult, you realize that it is sometimes a little more complicated than that.”, she observed, cryptically.

“Yes. Sometimes. There are obligations.”

We agreed, in silence – but also, I think, in appreciation of the child she had been and the wisdom she had shown to understand that quintessential difference between a child’s life and an adult’s life – but also to have wished to communicate it, to her older self.

I had never met the child she had been – but I felt then, that she had been an impressive one, in a way, for she was, even when so young, seeking to understand what life was and how it is lived, at different ages. My wife would have been an interesting child to speak to, I think. Then, again, no doubt that is why she became an interesting adult to speak to!

It is funny to consider it but I feel this tale of my wife’s brought her younger self into the room with us, as if she did, in fact, manage to speak to the future: I felt her presence, on my wife’s tongue, in my wife’s eyes and in the expression on her face. My wife’s nine year old self had succeeded in bridging time, to speak with us, across all those years. She had, in fact, spoken to the husband she could never have guessed she would one day meet. How strange -and how touching. There was a depth to that moment, that reached back across the decades to a little girl, who no longer was, and a thought that had endured.

Thank you, Syahidah, for sharing that moment. It brought your childhood alive, for me. I glimpsed who you had been and sensed the wisdom you had, even then. Thanks.

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.)

A memory for old age.

Today, I saw something which I rather feel, I shall always remember. To some, it might seem like a little thing, but to me, it is an iconic image.

I was coming home, after having been out, about my day, when I noticed something on the gate, to our house. It is a wide, black gate, made of old, much put upon wood. At the touch of a switch, it parts to let cars or people alike, through. However, the surface of the gate has a patina of dust, clinging to it, partially because of the nature of the paint on it.

Now, there is nothing remarkable about dust on a gate, but to me, there was something remarkable on that gate. All over the surface, little fingers had traced pictures, in the dust. They were pictures of happy, smiling people, joyously at play. I imagined, as I saw them, Tiarnan's and Fintan's fingers, drawing in the dust, expressing what was in their hearts and minds. It is clear, there is much happiness there - but also a desire to express it. They had drawn spontaneously on what their world offered them: a dusty gate.

I wished, in that moment, for a camera, but we have none that is working today (we have lost the charger). I hope, therefore, that the rain, which began moments after I saw the images, doesn't wash them away. I would like a photo of that indelible memory, so that I can show others, what I saw that day and explain to them, what it means to me. On that gate, I saw my children's childhood laid out before me. It was a sweet one, filled with innocent happiness. It made me smile, so, to see what they had done. I knew, in that moment, that I would remember that gate and its traced happiness. I knew that that gate would be forever with me, because it captured the essence of my children, as they are now, at the beginning of their lives.

I only hope I can photograph it, before it is gone.

Thank you Tiarnan (four) and Fintan (seven) for showing me what is in your hearts. I am happy to see it so.

I will remember that drawing of theirs upon the gate: the question is - will they remember it too? Will it become a memory of their childhoods...or will it be lost, for ever, as just one more day, in this eternal summer we live, near the Equator?

I hope to ask them one day, and to remind them of their tracings on the gate, in its obliging dust.

(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=8-1

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 at http://www.genghiscan.com/

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