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Baby Logic #45 – Being nice

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Last night I stabbed myself while brushing my teeth and started to bleed – Rohan was watching me. I started to crinch from hurting.

me: ouch, ouch, that hurt!!! <actively suppressing bad cuss words>

Ro<in a forgiving voice>: that’s OK, daddy! It’s OK when you’re hurting a bit.

WHAT!? Not quite the reaction I was expecting, but sweet intentions nevertheless. 🙂 He was trying to comfort me.

 

 

Baby Logic #44 – God

baby

Today we touched on the tricky topic of religion. I went with the Christian genesis story…

Ro <his ear on my chest>: I can hear your heart!

me: yes, it’s pounding.

Ro: do fish have hearts?

me: yes, every animal has a heart. <vast simplification :)>

Ro: who made the hearts?

me <after a pause>: God did. He’s the creator! <crinch>

Ro: God!?

me: yes, God created all living beings – all animals and all plants…

Ro: All!?

me: yes

Ro: even me?

me: yes, even you – and me!

Ro: he made grass?

me: yes, he made the grass.

Ro: he was here one day?

me: yes, he *is* here.

Ro <shocked and in disbelief>: Here?

me: yes.

Ro<turning around>: where *is* he?

me: we can’t see him.

Ro: is he made of glass?

<genious!>

me: no, he’s not made of glass. God is in everything he created.

Ro<confused, long pause>: is he a man?

me: nope!

Ro: is he made of gold?

me<the bible has clearly something to say about that>: No, he’s *not* made of gold! And we’re not making things of gold that would look like him either!

Ro <again>: he came here?

me: yes, and he *is* here. Don’t worry he loves you!

Ro: I didn’t see him.

me: but you can hear my heart, don’t you? He made it beat.

Ro <with his head on my chest again>: ahh, yes I hear it. <pounding on my chest with a big smile>: Hi, God!

<after some more listening to my heart he looks around in the room>:

Ro: did he make the door?

me: no, men made door. But he made the sky. And the earth. And “everything living under the sky”. <proud of the quote>

Ro: did he go up in the sky with a balloon when he made it?

me: God didn’t need a balloon to make the sky. He just made it. He can go places by thinking.

Ro: did he come down after?

me: yes, he came back after he made the sky and made all the animals and plants

Ro: that’s a lot!

me: yep!

Ro: he must be tired.

me: yes, he was very tired after he made all the animals. So he took a break on Sunday.

Ro: he didn’t make anything on Sunday?

me: nope. he just slept.

Ro: I’m hungry!

…. THE END.

 

Context and Convention

thoughts

Today it struck me again how much context we assume in even the simplest every day actions.

Every computer kid today knows how to press Ctrl-Alt-Del (it’s the key combo that used to reset computers and that is nowadays used  to login to a Windows 7 machine).

But reading the cryptic Ctrl-Alt-Del expression, assumes a lot of intrinsic knowledge from the reader: First there are the acronyms, Ctrl for the Control key on the keyboard, many times there are two…, Alt for Alternate key, again, there are two, and finally the Delete button, placed at various locations on different keyboards.

We also assume by convention that you press them in the correct order left to right, or nothing will happen, i.e. if you press Del first.

Then we imply that you hold the keys down after pressing them in the correct order, or again: nothing would happen.

All this application of inherent knowledge in the reading context happens in a split second – Hundreds of times every day. And eventually, after many repetitions  it becomes a blind motor skill, with the translation of the action shorted out by muscle memory.

The cognitive performance on the way to that state is truly stunning. This becomes very apparent when you try to explain this either to an adult who has never operated a computer, or when you teach a kid about the ways how computers work.