Lessons in Gravity

It's finals week, so I have been extremely busy finishing up what feels like a thousand programs, and we are moving back in with my mom this week, so packing and cleaning has taken up a lot of my time as well. The end of the semester is so busy that all of my personal projects have ended up getting put on hold. I decided that it's about time I did something for myself, and I've been telling myself that I am going to start a blog for a long time. So, I did, and here it is.

Even when I'm incredibly busy with school, managing the house, and everything else I've got on my plate (which always seems like a whole lot), the best and most important part of my life on any given day is spending time with my son and teaching him things. Life presents a lot of opportunities for him to learn, and for me to learn from him.

Zeb is an excellent little scientist. My goal as a parent is to instill in him the same sense of wonder that I have for all things, emphasizing the importance of critical thought. I want him to ask questions and get answers. I never want him to feel that he can't find the answer to any question he might have. After all, while there remain myriads of unanswered questions in any field, it is always those who have the courage and the inspiration to ask questions that might seem unanswerable who find the most interesting information. Surely people once thought it was impossible to fly, but the Wright brothers didn't -- and what if they had? What if Robert Goddard hadn't dared to consider that spaceflight might be possible? Maybe we'd still be grounded, confined not only to our own countries, but to the surface of our planet as well.

I intend to try never to be discouraging, and always to give a thorough answer, even if he isn't quite old enough to understand it yet. He will be, some day, and he will ask again because he'll know that his mama will always answer his questions to the best of her abilities. Yesterday, when Zeb tried to walk up the wall while lying on his back on the bed, he concluded, "Mama, I can't walk up the wall." I tried to explain the concept of gravity to him. He is only two, so while he can now say the word gravity, he has obviously not quite grasped the science of it all. However, something must've sunk in. If nothing else, he is now aware that he can't actually walk up the wall, despite it being flat and smooth and feeling a whole lot like the floor.

Also, I just found him lying face down on the kitchen floor with his arms stretched out wide. "Hold on tight, mama!" he said. "Hold on tight to what, Zeb?" I asked. He replied, giggling, "Hold on tight to the flooooooor!" as if he was beginning to understand that gravity really is all that keeps us stuck on to our little planet, and it's a big universe out there.