Sympathy for one’s fellow animals.

Sometimes, it is the quality of a personality that impresses – particularly in the emotions in they feel for others and what drives those emotions.

Yesterday, Tiarnan was watching a programme on National Geographic Channel, about deadly snakes. One particular snake was shown swallowing a rat whole. Tiarnan watched this with rapt attention and leant forward a little.

“So sad.” He said, with a voice rich in feeling. “So sad.”

I said nothing but simply hugged him to me, with my right arm.

Again, the snake was shown eating a rat. “So sad.” He remarked again.

His mother Syahidah was surprised at this reaction. “That is a rat, Tiarnan.”

“No. It is not. They are nice.”

We both were touched by his sympathy towards this furry victim.

He paused for a moment and then said: “It is not a rat. It is a mouse.”

We didn’t argue the point. What was important was that he actually cared about his fellow creature and what happened to them. He felt genuine sadness to see the “mouse”, eaten whole.

This reaction of Tiarnan impressed me because too often, people nowadays seem to care little for their fellow man – or their fellow creatures. Yet, Tiarnan is able to feel genuine sympathy for his fellow creature – however small that creature may be, in the scheme of things.

What a sweetie Tiarnan is.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

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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.) 

Save our vegetables.

Tiarnan is a quirky little boy, for a four year old. He sees the world very much from his own perspective and, sometimes, this leads him to do and say things which are sometimes surprising, often endearing, for there is, often, an essential sweetness to his thoughts.

Today, over dinner, Tiarnan was taking rather a long time to eat his vegetables. He studied them carefully, then picked up a peapod. Oddly, he peeled open the pod, attentively, and took out the peas, one by one, and placed them to one side. They were rather small, round peas, the pods not being the large ones I had been accustomed to, in the UK, as a child. He carried on doing this, until all the peas had been extracted, then he took a bite out of the empty pod shell, then another and another, until it was all gone.

“Why aren’t you eating your peas?” I asked him, without a hint of the amusement, I felt.

“I am letting them escape.”, he replied, seriously, as if he had set free some revolutionaries, from prison.

It turned out, from further enquiry, that he thought the little round peas, to be some kind of baby vegetable, since they were much smaller than the ones he was used to. As baby vegetables, he just couldn’t bring himself to eat them – so he had decided to set them free. His sweetness of thought, made me smile, inwardly – but then, Tiarnan is often sweet in his thought. He has such an engaging way of looking at the world. I hope he retains this quality as he grows older, even if it is transformed, gradually by a better knowledge of the world.

Though Tiarnan didn’t notice, his mother ate the escaped “baby” vegetables later. Fortunately, he didn’t see all his patient work going to waste.

(If you would like 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.)