The cycle of life and death.

A few days ago, I told my two youngest sons about the cycle of life and death. Fintan, 8, listened intently, but didn’t really comment. Tiarnan, 6, however was most responsive.

“Everybody dies, someday...”, I began, looking at Tiarnan. He had made a remark, which I cannot now recall, which prompted me to introduce this subject.

His eyes fixed on me, somewhat intently.

“But, if you have children, Tiarnan, something of you will live on in them. Just like I will live on in you.”

That thought seemed a nice one, to him. He looked to his brother, for confirmation that he, too, thought well of it.

“You, Tiarnan, and you Fintan, are half Mummy and half Daddy...”

They both smiled at this thought.

“You have different halves of Mummy and Daddy, but you both have half of each of us. There are genes in every cell, that tell how to make you – they are like a recipe for making you. You have half of Mummy’s recipe and half of Daddy’s recipe. So, half of us lives on in each of you.”

They were a little awonder at this and shared that wonder with a glance to each other.

“When you grow up, you will have children too,” I said, my gaze encompassing both Tiarnan and Fintan. “And those children will have children too, when they grow up.”

Tiarnan then interrupted my explanation.

“Then they will die, but their children will live on and have children. Then they will die and their children will live on, and have children...and then...they will die and their children will live on and have children...and...”

Then he laughed, unexpectedly. It was a full laugh, a laugh that seemed to express an absurdity he sensed at the core of life. The whole cycle of life and death seemed ridiculous to my six year old son.

Suddenly he stopped.

“I am not going to get married.”, he said, determinedly.

“You will when you grow up.”

“No! I am not going to get married.”, he said more forcefully.

“Why not?”, I said, curious about my little son’s perspective on life.

“I am too shy.”, he confessed, softening.

“You will get less shy as you get older. I was shy as a young boy...but as I grew up, I became less shy, until I wasn’t shy anymore.”

He didn’t seem convinced. He even seemed to shrink in shyness at the thought of his own shyness.

“No. I won’t.”

“Yes, you will. Goodnight.”

I put them to bed and waited until they had fallen to sleep.

As I write of my son’s responses, I wonder, now, at why he said he wouldn’t get married...was it truly the shyness that would, he thought, block that...or was it a sense of the pointlessness of the cycle of life and death: did he think it too absurd to participate in? I wonder, because he seemed to be considering that absurdity when he suddenly stopped and said he wasn’t going to get married. Or perhaps, he had realized that if he didn’t get married, he wouldn’t be participating in that cycle of life and death in the fullest way. In either case, it was an interesting thought.

It is true though. Tiarnan is shy. However, he has many attributes which do best in someone who is not shy. So, he is full of contradictions – with a co-existence of positive attributes that require the absence of shyness, which is present, for full expression. I shall, of course, work on him overcoming his shyness. I shall write of one such attempt soon.

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.)

Source Code: Tiarnan's review.

Yesterday, we took the kids to see Source Code, the film by Duncan Jones, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. It was very interesting to watch the boys’ reactions to this somewhat unconventional film. In particular it was Tiarnan’s response that intrigued me most.

Those who haven’t seen the film should note that it has a cyclic, repetitive structure for much of it. I won’t give away any details by telling you why...just note that this is so.

Tiarnan, five, was silent at first watching the film, but gradually a degree of puzzlement grew in him. He started to behave oddly. At one point, he even seemed to go to sleep, but then, after some minutes, opened his eyes, too quickly and too alertly, to have really been asleep at all.

He turned to his mother, leaning into her ear.

“Mummy, what is it with this film? When I go to sleep, then wake up, it is the same!”
She smiled to hear his words, but had no explanation – and it was not the place to give it. She urged him back to the screen.

He continued to watch the film, but his mind seemed to be contemplating more than just the plot. He seemed to be thinking very deeply indeed. He reached out to his popcorn and carefully ate it all up, bit by bit. He studied the popcorn carefully, as if satisfying himself that it was genuinely eaten. Then he looked up at the screen again...and looked somewhat exasperated.

He leaned into his mummy again.

“Mummy: when I finish my popcorn, the movie is STILL the same!”

She gave him a hug. Explanations could wait until she was out of the cinema.

At the end, she asked him: “Did you enjoy the film?”

She did not expect a positive answer, given his comments.

“Yes.” He nodded, seriously, for such a small boy. “I did, by the end.”

Now, to my understanding, Tiarnan’s response to the film was very interesting and very complex, indeed. When he saw that the film was repeating, Tiarnan, who had never seen a film do this before, was led to question his own understanding of reality. He was unsure whether the film was genuinely repeating, or whether there was something wrong with his own experience of reality. His question seemed to be: was the film repeating, or was Tiarnan’s world repeating?

Tiarnan, however, had a solution to this dilemma of whether it was himself or the film, at fault. He tried to create parallel changes in his world, of which he could be certain, and then tested them against the film, to see if it also exhibited changes. Thus, he pretended to sleep, knowing he had “slept” and knowing, therefore, that time had passed, in a different way, leading to the expectation that the film would change. Yet, it hadn’t. This only increased his puzzlement more. Thus, he conceived of another reality test – a more tangible one. He decided to eat all his popcorn and make an irreversible tangible change in the world of which he could be sure. Sure enough, all the popcorn vanished – but still the film was basically the same. This, however, reassured him that the film was at fault and not his own experience of reality.

Tiarnan’s thinking, to my mind, was very complex in this situation. He genuinely seemed to be considering the two alternatives: that it was the film, or his lived reality that were at fault. Then he devised tests to distinguish which pertained. It was a very subtle piece of thinking for a five year old. It was also one that showed a certain open-mindedness and maturity: open-minded, to consider that he might be at fault, mature to invent incontrovertible tests to distinguish the possibilities.
For me, Tiarnan’s reaction to the film was the best part about it. I did enjoy the film, but I got far more out of seeing what he made of it. Just watching my children explore and understand the world gives me rewards I could not have imagined existed, before I became a father.

Thank you, Tiarnan, for showing me what you thought of the world, yesterday, and of what was possible for it.

(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 at http://www.genghiscan.com/

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