What you see is what you get.

A couple of months ago, Tiarnan, four, collared his mum, Syahidah with a thought.

"Sometimes," he began, ruminatively, "you cannot tell the good or the bad...but you can DEFINITELY see the ugly."

When I heard this, I thought it eminently wise, for one so small. He had come to observe that moral quality, was not immediately visible, or was, perhaps, at times, ambiguous but that beauty, or its absence was immediately evident.

It is interesting, for me, that he thinks on these matters. He is weighing what is good and what is evil - and how to determine these. He has realized that it is not always easy to say, without further information, whether something or someone is good or evil. He has also come to understand the immediacy of visual beauty and its opposite.

I do not know whether matters of good and evil; beauty and ugliness, are the common thought of four year olds, everywhere...I suspect not. However, it is revealing to me, that they are the material of Tiarnan's thoughts. He is, though he knows it not, having philosophical thoughts. He is thinking about moral values and aesthetics - and, indeed, many other philosophical concerns. His thoughts are concerned with the human sphere and the human experience and what he understands of them. It is not so important what, exactly, he thinks of these matters, but the very fact that he IS thinking of these matters. It says something deep about the nature of his nascent personality and mind, that he should dwell on such matters over other things. I am led to see a certain commonality between Tiarnan and my younger self. For, you see, I have written a book that considers many similar matters, though it is yet unpublished. I find it telling, therefore, that little Tiarnan, who knows nothing of my work, my writings or my deeper thoughts on life (for I have yet to discuss them with him, of course), should, of his own accord, give thought to allied matters.

We are each unique, yet we each share dispositions with our forebears. So it is with my children: though they are unique and unlike any others, in some ways, they are also akin to ourselves, sharing elements, themes, inclinations and instinctive outlooks, with either myself or my wife. It is reassuring to see those dispositions and ways of thought emerging, unprompted, from their growing minds. It informs me that, one day, there will be in this world, three young men who understand their parents better than any others in all the world. They will understand us, because, in some ways, they will be us, be echoes of ourselves, reverberating into a future we may never know, for, of course, our time is likely to be less than theirs. When we are gone, they will remain and, in some way, parts of our human tale, will go on, told by other tongues, and other minds, but informed, nevertheless by some of the very same substance, that made us, what we are and, one day, were.

Carry on thinking Tiarnan...for as your world view forms, I will be here, to understand it - and you.

(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.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.

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.)

Like father, like son.

Yesterday, I sat at the computer typing, as I am now doing. Behind me, Tiarnan busied himself with something, that I could only hear, and not see.

"I like THAT one...and that one!", he said to himself.

Wondering just what it was that he liked, I turned around.

There, he had laid out a series of "Conan" books, side by side, in a long line. Each had a picture on the front of the heroic Conan engaged in some swordplay - either with other warriors (though hugely outnumbered, in all cases), or with a monster of some kind - usually, most oddly, a giant snake.

I rose from my desk and walked over to him, curious as to which of these heroic images he liked.

"Which ones do you like?", I asked him.

"All of them!", he said, sweeping his arm down the length of the long line of Conan books.

I thought this a funny moment and it made me wonder many things. Long ago, as a boy, I had read Robert E. Howard's Conan books. They had appealed to my teenage imagination, with their tales of the resolute Conan hacking his heroic way through a brutal ancient world, with barely a scratch, so talented was he in swordplay. There was something primal about the stories, something basic and fundamental, to early man - and therefore, by extension, to us all, for that is where we come from. (Though, of course, the details would be rather different and no man could survive long living as Conan did.)

Now, before me, my three year old son, was interested in the very same books that had held my childhood imagination (or some of them, anyway...I read a lot of books). It seems that the same heroic imagery had a hold over my three year old, as it had had over me as a thirteen year old. What was it about the images that appealed to him? Was it the strength of the hero? Was it the heroism itself? Was it its depiction of a bygone age, that had never actually been? I didn't ask him these questions, though: I just witnessed, warmly, his enthusiastic gaze, on those images that, once, long ago, had held a fascination for me, too.

Our children are much more like us, than we might imagine. Not only do they, of course, look like us...but the choices that they make, the tastes that they show, the things that they like to do and be, are often remarkably similar too. In a way, this is a very good thing - for it means that, as he grows up, I can share his interests supported as they are, by remembrance that I, too, had once been interested in the same things. We are, therefore, bonded together, by these shared sympathies, and likings.

You may be wondering why I have a series of Conan books in my house. Well, they are there for nostalgia. They are not the original ones that once I read - for those are back in England. They are another set that I came across - and found myself purchasing out of a desire to have something of my youth. They reminded me of the boy I had once been.

Now, of course, I don't think I could bring myself to read them. I don't think I would connect to them in the way I once did. They seem too distant from me now. Also, I have so many other things to do, that I don't find the time for the simple pleasures of reading fiction. Thus, I tend not to read fiction, anymore. If I do read, it is usually factual material.

Yet, it is good to have them around the house. It makes me feel that somewhere, the boy I used to be, is still around somewhere too. Only, now he is three - and likes two covers in particular!

(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.)

The aesthetic views of a toddler.

Tiarnan is two. His is a two year old world. It is a world uncluttered by adult categorizations and stereotypes, it is a world that is still fresh and new and open. However, to my eyes, at times, being, as I am, acculturated into the adult world, his world is a strange one.

A couple of days ago, in the darkness of a late evening, in a park area, Tiarnan came running up to me with something in his hand. "Nice.", he said, emphatically.

In the darkness, I saw what I thought to be a fruit of some kind. I was concerned that he might eat it.

"You cannot eat it.", I noted quickly. He said nothing, but held it up for me.

I reached out in the darkness and let my fingers close on what I thought was the fruit body, below the stalk.

Yuck. It was a large snail.

I snatched my hand away.

My wife intervened at that moment. "That's nice.", she agreed, not wishing not to and continued: "Put it down over there.", she said, quietly, pointing to the grass verge beside the road.

Tiarnan did so, not asking why.

Happily he walked home with us.

The whole incident made me understand how different his world is to ours. He can still see beauty in things that we have learnt to see as a little creepy. In a way, I suppose, his world view is more true to things as they actually are, than ours is. He sees the world as it is, when you have no preconceptions. It is amazing, however, at times, how different that world is, from the one I see.

Incidentally, he likes beetles, too and has been known to play with them, picking them up in his fingers and using them as if they were toy cars.

He is not a squeamish boy, that is for sure. I suppose he sees beauty in beetles, too. I hope his future girlfriends are not equally unusual in their aesthetics!

(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.)