Alternate title: A Wedding and a Funeral
This weekend, I learned that the mind of a five-year-old child is much more complex than I previously thought. I discovered this because my cousin Katie got married. (Congrats, Katie and Josh!) My sister was a bridesmaid, and her role was to march down the aisle at the start of the wedding, then back up the aisle at the end of the wedding, each time escorted by whatever dude they paired her with (I think his name was Mark). This is pretty standard procedure, but her five-year-old son, Sam, hasn’t been to many weddings, I guess, because he thought he was watching his own mother get married to another man while he, his father, and his little brother sat in the pews. At first, he was quite upset. He refused to speak to his mother, wouldn’t sit for photos with her, and was just generally morose. Due to this, his dad took the two boys home instead of to the reception. Later, however, as Daddy was putting the boys to bed, Sam was much more pragmatic about the issue. He wanted to know if his new dad would take him to Legoland and where they would all live.
The next morning, Mommy made sticky buns for breakfast, and, of course, all was forgiven. I repeat: the mind of a child is a fascinating thing. How does it function? How does our reasoning evolve? It goes beyond socialization and experience. I assume the development of the frontal lobe plays a major role, as well, but what else is there? What I really need is for someone to map all the brain in each of its developmental stages and explain to me which does what. I’ll have to post a request to reddit as soon as I can come up with a title that won’t fill up the page.
Gramma Esther’s memorial service was this weekend, as well. It was a beautiful day; we told family stories, ate lunch, then took a bunch of flowers leftover from the wedding to put on all the family plots.
One of the plots we beflowered was my great-grandfather’s, who died in 1961 (dude was born in 1876). He still has progeny paying tribute at his gravesite. Pretty awesome.
But, sigh. No more grandmas. No more grandpas, either. It’ll take some getting used to. Is there some organization I can apply to that will send me barely-legible checks for ten dollars every year on my sister’s birthday?
Mel, with regard to a child’s reasoning, I read something pertinent in a book I just finished called “Astrid and Veronica”, by Linda Olsson. “Children have to build their world from such incomplete information. Other people make decisions for them, and only fragments of the rationale are ever conveyed. As children we inhabit a world built of incoherent snippets. The process of embellishing and filling the holes is an unconscious one, I think. ”
I remember as a child that everything seemed so confusing and random, and nobody bothered to explain things to me!