bliumchik | Children

We define things.

My little brother, in the car, for instance, spent a good deal of time trying to ascertain whether or not telekinesis was possible - or rather, whether the universe would just do what you tell it to do. He was looking down at the car floor and I could hear him repeatedly whispering: "Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop."

I'm not sure if he thought my dad would stop the car or if the car would stop of its own volition, but he always asks for things quite loudly when he just wants us to give him something, and there was no reason for him to want us to stop the car. It was like he was testing the world, exactly the way he bites things to see what they taste like or pushes things to see if they will fall.

I don't think we ever explore the universe quite as thoroughly as we do in our youngest years. By now we extrapolate, we assume that all things will be affected by gravity although we haven't checked all of them, we do try things but it's because we want them, not just to see if we can make them happen.