Captain Curiosity

"Is time fast or slow?"
 
That is just one of the questions my little boy asked me recently over pancakes and apples. I love this age, this sweet time of pure, unsoiled curiosity about EVERYTHING. True, my head starts to spin sometimes when I am need a quiet moment and the questions are still flying at me. But in general, I just LOVE his point of view on the world around us. I love hearing him work things out in that head, I can see the smoke coming from his ears and hear the gears turning in his mind. He really wants to know. He's really, truly trying to work this whole life on planet earth thing out. Is there nothing more wonderful than that? In a world coated in apathy and saturated in instant information, the real time ponderings of a free range 5-year old are nothing short of nirvana to me.

Aside from making me laugh and smile and even consider things I never considered before -- it makes me remember as a parent that he truly interprets the world around us differently. It reminds me to be patient and consider his point of view. It forces me to realize that although he's been around for 5 years and although he's largely under my influence, he doesn't see things the way I do -- big things or little things, and I need to respect and nurture that.

Here are a few other musings of late -- I know your little ones ask the same sort of questions and have the same deep thoughts, post them in the comments, I'd love to hear their ideas!

I wish I was a rock, because then I could live forever, why does everything have to die? That doesn't seem fair.


I wish there was something that humans wouldn't kill. They almost kill everything.


I wish Buckminster Fuller ate his grow foods so he would be alive today and I could ask him all about making those round houses.


When will the earth die? Where will the earth die when it does? What will it look like when it dies? Will there still be something on earth or in this whole ocosystem (yes, OCO-system) that's still alive even is all the people are dead? Oh, and uh, will all of the stars when they die, will they always be up when the earth and the ocosystem dies?


Can germs get sick?


What's on the other end of the universe? How do you know when you get to the end of it?


Who was the first person on earth? He was here a long time ago, so he's probably dead, but he had to be smart to figure everything out by himself.


Why can't microscopic things grow bigger? Do they eat their grow foods?


Who rules the ocean?


Mommy I didn't know I had European blood in me! How did it get in there? Did some European sneeze on me?