I've been reading to Elliot. We started with Faulkner, but he didn't like it so I'm trying these soft cloth books with no actual words. They went over well, so he's now graduated back up to real books with sentences.
One of the things I've noticed is how he really wants to control the book. He wants to hold it, he wants to turn the pages. These books are as tall as he is, but he gets angry when I turn the page without including him.
A few weeks ago we had brunch with some friends, who have a 16-month old. On the way back, the little boy was trying to push the stroller instead of sit in it. I said something like How Cute, and my friend said, "Actually, I think he's mad because I'm helping him push the stroller. He wants to do it himself."
Euclid proved (or just stated?) that two points make a line, and if you consider those two incidents points, then what kind of line can we draw? Does the same impulse --- to always grab for something just beyond what you are capable of --- extend throughout the rest of childhood? And through adulthood too perhaps? Certainly the teenage years are filled with examples of trying things you're not ready for.
Seems like something I should be able to draw a lesson from, but I'm not sure what. Do something you're not ready to do? Do something impossible?
Maybe it's this: If you take on a challenge that seems impossible, you may grow into it with time, and when you finish it will no longer be impossible.
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