Seeing the world with chemical eyes.

At unexpected times, I am reminded that Ainan sees the world in a rather different way, to most young boys. He sees the world with chemical eyes.

A few weeks ago, I was out with Ainan. Now, anyone who knows Malaysia will know that there are open drains beside the roads, perhaps to offset the chance of floods. We had just come out of a Starbucks onto a quiet roadway, that ran along the shops. At the outer edge of the little road, was a wall. We stepped up onto the wall. Immediately beyond it, was a ditch all along the road, that acted a drain. Beyond that, was the main road proper, that we wanted to get to, in search of a taxi.

So, we stepped up onto the wall and jumped across the ditch, down onto the side of the main road beyond.

Ainan said nothing.

We spent some ten minutes trying to flag down a taxi – and being ignored by the very few which passed by.

“Let’s go back to Starbucks and call a cab from there.”, I suggested to Ainan.

So, we walked across the road, to the drainage ditch. With an effortful stretch, Ainan stretched his leg across the ditch and stepped up onto the wall.

Standing on the top of the wall, he remarked: “That was an endothermic reaction.”

He looked down at me. “...and when we came out it was...”

“...an exothermic reaction!”, I said filling in.

He had a point. To return the way we had come and go up to the wall, from down beside the drainage ditch, required an input of energy...hence endothermic. To come down off the wall, one only had to use gravity to do so...so, in a sense, energy came out, from one...an exothermic reaction.

I thought it was very telling of the way he sees the world that he should notice a physical and visual analogy to endothermic and exothermic reactions, whilst out walking around town.

Not for the first time, I was moved to reflect that children of his own age, would not grasp his thoughts, should he ever choose to express them, unfiltered, to them. Of course, he never really did that. With children his own age, he would select his utterances very carefully and never really reveal what he was truly thinking. He would decide to talk about something else, something more readily understood, than to actually make the remarks that came, unbidden, to mind.

For me, I was happy to have a glimpse of the way he interprets the world, as we crossed the ditch. He allowed me to see, for a moment, how he perceives, analyzes and understands the world. Of course, he did so, because he knew that I would understand his reference. Had I been another child, he would have walked in silence.

This incident is a simple example of his chemical perception. Often it is not so simple. Sometimes, I really have to reflect on what he has said, carefully, so elusive is it. At such times, I do wonder how many people he shall really be able to connect with, fully, in his lifetime. Such people would have to be quite unusual in their own way, I think. I do hope he manages to gather around him enough such people to feel properly connected to the world. In the meantime, I shall be there for him, when he chooses to speak his mind. I hope it is enough, for now.

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.

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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.

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

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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.)

Seeing the unseen.

A few weeks ago, Ainan proffered a car magazine to me.

“What do you notice about this photograph?”, he enquired, intently, his eyes filled with hidden meanings.

He was pointing at the cover.

One of the cars I recognized, immediately.

“A Bugatti Veyron is overtaking another car…”

“Is it?” he asked, his gaze directing me to look more closely.

“Yes.”, for assuredly, the Bugatti was in front of the other car. Though, of course, I had no way of knowing what would happen shortly afterwards, or what their relative velocity was – however, the photo seemed to mean what I thought it to mean.

“Dad,” began Ainan, in the tone of one about to explain something to someone who clearly did not understand, “These two cars were never in the same place.”

They sure looked pretty close to me.

“This image has been faked, Dad.”

I attended to the photo more closely – and waited for Ainan to continue.

“If you look at the Bugatti, the shadows fall here,” he pointed, “and the highlights on the paintwork, are here,” he pointed again. “This suggests that the lighting comes from over here.” His finger was suspended in space above the photograph. “However,” he continued, “if you look at the other car, the shadows are here and the lighting appears to come from here.” His finger hovered in a rather different place to the first intuited Sun. “These two cars have been taken from different images and a composite made.”

“Ah.”, I said, eloquently. “I see.”

He was right. This image was not a natural one and these cars never passed each other in the way depicted.

It should be noted, here, that the shadows and highlights Ainan pointed out, were subtle matters and not at all obvious. The shadows were quite small and very few people would have noticed what he saw so clearly. I didn’t, for one and I am generally thought of as alert.

What was on show, in this instance, was one of Ainan’s particular gifts: seeing things as they actually are, and not as he is meant to see them. Ainan is a very observant boy. The little things which no-one would ever notice, in a lifetime, are just the things he points out, and discusses, sometimes at length and detail. It seems that he is particularly difficult to fool where visual matters are concerned. Of course, this is the primary way most people observe the world, so it is a most useful attribute. Often, the only thing that might separate two scientists one “brilliant” and the other ordinary, is how effective they are at observing. History is filled with scientific advances that have, at their core, a careful observer and a subtle observation. It would be difficult to overestimate its importance as a quality – both for the scientist and, I might add, any artist, too.

This is but one occasion on which Ainan has pointed out something less than obvious about his environment – something which everyone else had overlooked. However, it gives a sense of his peculiar attentiveness. I would be most unsurprised if this characteristic leads him to produce something interesting, or unexpected, in the course of his life – something which everyone else had simply missed.

(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

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 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.

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.)