Individuality through verbal expression.

Ainan, 12, has his own characteristic style of expression. At times he is markedly associative, in his writing, linking ideas sometimes logically, sometimes elusively. This creates stories unlike those written by anyone I know. At other times, however, he is pithy, in a memorable sort of way. For instance, on the 4^th June, 2012, he remarked: “Yes is just distilled maybe. Yes is the part that doesn’t evaporate away.”

Now, these two sentences might sound poetic, but he had a serious point in there, too...he was stating his understanding that “maybe” contained an element of yes in it (and an element of no, too). He was counteracting my frustration that he wouldn’t give a yes or no answer to a question I had asked him (now forgotten). He did so in a mild though pedagogical manner, as if he sought, gently, to enlighten his father with what seemed obvious to him. It was also, of course, his way to win the “argument” of whether he should give a yes or no answer.

I enjoy talking to Ainan. He is resourceful in his argumentation, when it comes to debating a point – and somewhat unexpected in his means of expression. He is also decidedly determined to maintain his point, in the face of any counterargument. I think this is a strength, in that he will defend his ideas, in future and speak on their behalf.

I do wonder at his creative writing though. It takes a certain kind of open mind to appreciate the way he constructs sentences, thoughts and observations. His peculiar combination of logic and association, makes for an unusual and challenging read. There is also a lot of humour in his work – both plays on words, and absurdities in the situations his characters encounter. It is not at all like anyone else’s writing that I know of...not even mine.

Anyway, it is in this individuality of verbal expression that much of Ainan can be found. Those privileged enough to read his creative writing, encounter an elusive thinker, laughing at the world, and its ways. Those who hear his pithy remarks, sense the beginning of an aphorist. So there are two competing means of expression in him: the logically condensed and telling and the diffuse, associative and elusive. It is as if there are two different types of writer in him, fighting for the right to “speak up”. Perhaps there are. Perhaps the secret of Ainan is that he is a chimera of opposites, each tugging him in a different direction simultaneously. The net effect of all these differing intellectual and dispositional forces, is the young, somewhat enigmatic, Ainan himself.

The question is: will one of these multiple influences prevail? Or will they always commingle? Will the associative or the logical win out, in Ainan?

I shall watch his writing and heed his words in the years ahead, to see how he develops.

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.

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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.

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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.) 

How to be an individual.

A couple of days ago, my youngest son, Tiarnan, 6, gave us all a lesson in how to be an individual.

His mother, Syahidah, was chatting to him about his school life and his friends. She remarked that one of his friends did something she thought was interesting and asked:

“Why don’t you do that, too?”

“I don’t like to COPY!”, he sat, his face suddenly catching fire, with an inner fury at the very idea. “I DON’T COPY!”, he snapped.

She was surprised at the vehemence of his reply but was impressed, too. For in his instant retort, there lay a big, fat clue as to Tiarnan’s nature: he prizes originality. Now, Tiarnan may only be 6 years old, but he is a very individual six year old. He is very much himself and himself alone. Without realizing it, he revealed one of those reasons, in his outburst: he resists imitating his friends. What they do, he deliberately does not do. He seeks to do his own thing, uninfluenced by others. He resists influence, in a world in which most of his young colleagues at school, quite actively seek influence.

I think individuality is very important. It is key to being an interesting person and key to doing anything original in the world. There never was a genius, who was not also very much an individual. I think the phrase “conformist genius” would be a contradiction in terms. To be a genius, or a creative person of merely talented dimensions, you have to be a non-conformist individual – someone who seeks to be themselves in a world that seeks, too often, to be all alike.

I am encouraged by Tiarnan’s vituperative response to his mother’s question. It speaks of a strong need to be an individual – one which will serve him well, should he ever choose to pursue a creative endeavour as an adult – for nothing is more important in a creative field, than that one is an individual.

Carry on being yourself, Tiarnan...even if vehemently so!

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.)

Fintan's very own season's greetings.

Fintan, 8, is a young boy of much whimsy. He has his own particular way of expressing himself that often leads to bizarre, or comic results.

Today, I phoned home to the UK to let my children speak to my parents. Just before the phone call went through, Fintan made a remark, which the others paid particular attention to.

I asked the boys to sing my parents, the song that begins: “We wish you a Merry Xmas...”

My father answered the phone.

The boys duly began singing.

“We wish you a HAIRY Xmas, we wish you a HAIRY xmas, we wish you a HAIRY xmas and a Happy New Year!”

“Could you hear them?”, I asked my father, wondering if he really had.

“Yes. They were wishing me a Merry Xmas.”

He seemed quite pleased at their singing.

“No.”, I said, “they were singing you: “I wish you a HAIRY Xmas...””

He laughed. “Oh were they?”

He turned to my mother, to explain what they had done.

Now he seemed even more impressed.

I have no doubt it was the first time, in my father’s life, that anyone had wished him a Hairy Xmas. That was what Fintan had remarked upon, before I put the call through. He is always coming out with off the wall remarks and reinterpretations of things he sees and hears. It is refreshing to hear his thoughts.

As for me, it is certainly a Hairy Xmas, since I have a beard at this time.

Anyway, in the spirit of Fintan, I would like to wish you all a Hairy Xmas, and a Happy New Year.

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.)

On Silence and Self-expression.

Someone I know, whom I shall not name, is very keen on silence. That is, as a life philosophy, they prefer the silence of the tongue and the pen, to their use.

I shall explain. I enjoy blogging. I like to write. I have much to say. Daily, thoughts come to me, which I wish to share. So, I write them down and send them out into the world. I find great personal satisfaction in doing this, for it gives me the chance to communicate my world view in a way that did not exist a handful of years ago. Yet, this person would prefer that I stopped writing and maintained a stoic silence to the end of my days.

Now, what would be gained by being silent? Would the world be a better place for my silence? I am not sure that it would, but not for any egoistic reason. You see, everyone who has ever lived, lived a unique life. They came into the world with a unique set of genes and dispositions, they encountered unique circumstances, learnt unique things, experienced things no-one else ever experienced - and came to understand things no-one else will ever understand. This is the story of all humans, from the very first cave dwellers or savannah roamers, to the newest of newborns. We are all undeniably unique. So, what is gained if one of these unique human beings falls silent? Nothing. However, a great thing is lost: a unique set of experiences, world views, understandings and thoughts is never shared, never known and therefore forever lost when the bearer passes away.

Were I to stop writing, all my understandings of the world may as well never have been understood, for they will be lost with me, when my time comes. The same is true for us all. On a personal level we probably only share our thoughts with very few people - but those people, too, are mortal. So, in time, even if we share our thoughts on a personal level, all will be lost when those we shared them with, pass away. Therefore, it becomes our individual responsibility to ensure that we share our thoughts in a permanent fashion, that our world views and understandings become embodied in something more durable than another person's mind.

Different people share themselves - or express themselves - in different ways. Some design buildings, and show their views in how they are constructed. Some manage companies, and do so with a particular personality that shapes those companies. Some paint and draw and literally show the world their viewpoint. There are many ways to express the uniqueness of oneself. For me, it is writing: I express my thoughts in words. Were I not to write, I would feel somehow lessened. For in not writing, I am not speaking, in not speaking I am not communicating, in not communicating, I am not ensuring that what I learn from life has some afterlife, as it were.

I could heed this person's repeated request - to stop blogging. Yet, were I to do so, a particular kind of record, of a particular set of experiences and understandings would be forever lost to the world. However one judges the merit or quality of this contribution doesn't matter - what does matter is its essential uniqueness. No life lived will ever be as the one I know, is. Thus, if it is not recorded, the world is somehow impoverished by that. There would be no record of it - so that if anything I have learnt or understood is of any value, that value would be forever lost.

I don't see any benefit in that. Silence is the kind of outcome that leads nowhere and has no descendants. Silence produces nothing, creates nothing, achieves nothing. Silence is either for those with nothing to say, or too afraid to say it. I come into neither category at this time.

Some of my blog posts have stimulated quite an interesting reaction in the Singaporean blogosphere. I act as an outside voice, whose comments are informed by many years of direct experience. That voice, therefore, has a certain value because it contributes opinions that might not otherwise be uttered. Were I not to write, there are, perhaps, conversations that would never be, ideas that would never form, understandings that would never be understood. It is, therefore, important that I continue to write, for, in my small single-voiced way, I contribute to the ongoing debate that is the Singaporean blogosphere.

Were I not to record my children's antics, I would not have them to hand, when I am old, and my memory is fading. I choose to record them on a public blog, for I feel that family offers the greatest of rewards a human can know and I like to share my pleasure in those joys. Some readers have indicated that they, too, enjoy my tales of childhood. Would the world be better off without those tales of childhood? I don't think so - for while all childhoods have certain things in common, all childhoods also have unique elements, too. My writing constitutes a record of that uniqueness. Again, I don't think the world is better off without it - and my family is certainly not better off without it. This record will be precious to my children, when they are adults, for they will be able to see glimpses of their childhood here.

In all there are many reasons to write and only one reason not to write: because my relative believes in self-containment, rather than self-expression. They believe that silence, itself, is a value and has value. They believe that I should be, as they are - and maintain a silence in the world. Sadly, I think they could not be more wrong. Their world view, if adopted universally, would mean the end of all Art, all literature, all music, all public debate, all culture, all communication between people - and, ultimately, the end of all societies. You see, a society that has people who maintain a silence, among themselves, cannot survive - for without communication, there is no evolution of that society, no ability to grow, to deepen, to understand. It is a society that can only function at the level of clockwork programming and automaticity.

This person believes that it is better to say nothing, than to say anything at all. The act of communication is regarded as to be avoided. I understand why they think this. They value a certain kind of life, which does not admit the idea of a public presence. They believe in not leaving a mark, in not being noted, in not interacting with the public. Yet, that stance is completely at odds with the idea of any public self-expression - be it artistic, or social commentary, or even scientific (for an idea that is had, but not communicated cannot enter the public world of science). The idea of silence as a virtue means the end of all and any career which actually affects the world in any way, at all. To be silent, is not to exist, from the point of view of society and history.

The only effect on the world that is left to those who believe in silence, is to have children. I believe that there is more to life than just creating children. One must also create what one may, oneself. However, the creating of children is of great importance, too. One should ensure that both types of creation are part of life.

If you have read this far, then you must have some interest in the matter of self-expression, or perhaps silence. If so, feel free to express your thoughts in the comments.

I believe that if everyone were to believe in self-expression, the world would be much enriched, thereby, for the uniqueness of us all would leave some imprint upon the world, to be found and read, understood and appreciated. This imprint would mean that mankind could better accumulate understandings, insights, viewpoints and experiences (or records of them, anyway). It would all contribute to the wisdom of Man.

Singapore is one place that has, in recent years, through the internet, discovered this capacity to express itself. I am heartened to see that quite a few voices are contributing their understandings of life, to the global view of Mankind.

Long may it continue - and may silence never befall those with something to say and the means to say it.

(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.

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