The Right Stuff.

Sometimes, character is more important than anything else.

Over a week ago, Fintan went running with his mother, Syahidah. Now, as most regular readers will know, my wife is a rather athletic woman: she simply breathes physical exertion and has a love of challenging sporting activities that would just intimidate most people.

So, Syahidah ran alongside Fintan, rather amiably. It was a run around our neighbourhood, on the street in the early evening, as the sky began to take on a pink tinge. It was pleasant, as most evenings are, around here. She was enjoying her companionable run beside her seven year old son. He began to pull ahead of her, somewhat, but she wasn’t concerned that he had any chance of winning – for there was something she rather thought he was not considering: eventually they would have to run uphill. At that point, she expected Fintan to slow down and her to catch up and overtake him.

She jogged on, for some minutes. As they rounded a corner in the street and began the uphill climb home, Fintan did, indeed, begin to slow down. Running uphill is a big enough challenge for a seasoned adult –but, for a young boy, it was certainly quite an effort.

Syahidah smiled to herself, inwardly. Now, she was going to overtake him.

At this moment, Fintan did something unexpected. He suddenly started to pump his legs faster and faster, leaping forward UP the hill, as if it wasn’t really there. He raced ahead. Syahidah tried to catch him, but simply couldn’t match his pace. He was off, leaving her trailing in the distance.

I was waiting in front of our house, for their return. Fintan came rushing around the corner, racing towards me with a grin.

At last, he stood before me, curiously, not breathing heavily at all – or at least not noticeably.

I looked at my phone’s clock.

“Seven minutes.”, I told him.

He considered the number. By itself it meant nothing, however, allied with another fact, it had potent meaning.

“You beat mummy.”, I said, with gentle approval. “Well done.”

“When my legs began to burn, then I began to run faster!”, he explained.

I found myself laughing. “You ran FASTER when your legs began to burn?!”.

“Yes.” He said, perhaps a little amused at himself.

“That, Fintan, is when most people would stop running.”

A minute later, Syahidah arrived. “Eight minutes.”, I told her.

Her eyes appraised Fintan. Her face still held a lingering surprise that he had beaten her.

“He ran faster when his legs began to burn.”, I told her.

“He is crazy! That is when people collapse.”

My seven year old son, Fintan, had trounced his athletic mum, in a race. Yet, it was not his body that had won, with its smaller, shorter legs and restricted pace, compared to hers. No. It was his WILL that had won. Fintan had pushed his body, to greater exertion, precisely when most people would have given up the race. When his legs began to complain of the effort, that was the moment when he demanded more of them. To my understanding, this is very significant. It shows what kind of character Fintan has. When the situation becomes more difficult, when his body complains of the effort, that is precisely when he will make his greatest effort. Fintan will not allow himself to be defeated by the mere limits of his body. His strength of will, allows him to overcome such limits, to push his body beyond what others might have thought possible for a seven year old to accomplish.

I am pleased to see this characteristic in Fintan. I believe it will enable him to do difficult things, to overcome challenges others would simply give up on, once they realize their innate difficulty. He is only seven, yet he is already a higher performing athlete than his mother, when he chooses to be. That is certainly unexpected, given what I know of Syahidah’s capabilities in such areas.

I am reminded of the day he went rock climbing, and the way he flung himself through the air, from handhold to handhold, seemingly unconcerned and unmindful of the fall beneath him. He fairly ran up the rock face, as if it were no challenge at all, overcoming it in a state of delight. It seems, very much, that Fintan not only does not shirk from physical challenges, but relishes them. He thinks it is fun, to push the body to its limits and do things that seem quite unreasonable. I wonder where this will take him? One thing is for sure: he definitely has the “Right Stuff.”

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Conquering insurmountable difficulties

I learn much from simply being with my children. I learn about people, about life, and character. I learn about what makes people what they are. All these lessons are there to be had, if one would only open one's eyes to them.

Two weeks ago, on the 12th November, I was in a playground with Tiarnan. He had climbed onto a horse, on a carousel and pointed towards another horse, beside which I stood, indicating that I should mount my one. My horse was taller than his. It was also not meant for adults. So, I was reluctant to try its strength with my inordinate weight. Therefore, I pretended to an inability to reach this taller horse. I lifted my right leg, in an effort to climb onto it, and strained to reach it, failing, to do so.

Tiarnan looked at me, silently, evaluating the situation.

I tried to mount the horse, again - and failed, again, my leg unable to go over the high horse.

Tiarnan took in this scene and made a decision. He climbed off his horse, taking his leg around and off its back and dropped down onto the floor in a fairly fluid motion. He then hurried over to my horse and reached up to it, with his arm, his hand grasping the "saddle". He began to pull himself up with one hand. Then he flung his leg upwards and hooked it over the top of the horse and using the force of hand and hooked leg combined, he levered himself up onto the horse - one built for a much older child than him, for it was essentially unreachable to a toddler - at least, one would have supposed so. After some effort, he managed to pull himself into the saddle.

He looked me straight in the eye, then and, there being no need for words, he pointed back over his shoulder at the shorter horse he had vacated.

His message was clear. "I am small," his eyes said, "and you are large. I was able to climb into that smaller horse, so you can, too. By the way, I climbed into this one, too."

I suppose, if I had really been unable to climb onto the horse, I might have felt a little shame. As it was, my bluff had been called. I could hardly now pretend to be unable to climb the horse he had so easily climbed, himself.

I said nothing. I moved to the smaller horse, threw my leg over it, and pretended to settle my weight upon it.

He was satisfied. Daddy had joined him on the carousel.

I wonder what he thought, however, that Daddy could not mount the horse, but he could? Did he think less of me, or more of himself? There was no indication that he had thought any such thought, at all - his actions were those of a pragmatist. "I can do it, so I shall do it.", he said, by his actions...now you do the other one.

All of this leads to a thought, however. I had proven, to him, that a man my size couldn't mount the larger horse. What made him think that he could do it, where I could not?

There is a confidence, in him, I feel, at his physical abilities. Either that, or he has a good understanding of his own capabilities and knew that the taller horse was within his ability.

On show, I think, is an interesting character: one not afraid of challenges and one determined to overcome them. It should stand him in good stead for the life to come. An appetite for challenge comes in handy in all walks of life - whichever he chooses for his own, in time to come.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two 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, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)