On Monday we were conducting a simple experiment withtin cans which demonstrated Bernoulli’s law. Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? Basically, you blow air between the cans and the air pressure lowers and instead of the cans going apart as you’d figure, they come closer together. Anything hands-on and my kids are all for it, so I take advantage of that by drumming this stuff up sometimes.

Anyway, later that night I got a rare glimpse in to my son’s head. I had stolen hit on the idea of videotaping some of these events as a way to lend them some importance and so they are available for review, hopefully making them easier to understand/recall. At one point, I handed Mail the camera so that I could try blowing between the cans. I noticed while watching it later that night that this is when things started to get interesting. Up until then there is a mom sounding enthused about air pressure and a son and daughter playing along. After then, all hell breaks loose…

While we were demonstrating the pressure of air by blowing on a strip of paper, Mail zoomed in a little too close to his sister’s face and she gave chase….which caused him to run hysterically laughing down the hall. Anoif and I continued the paper trials, but Mail took his time returning, trotting by some pictures of presidential nomineees and imitating their stodgy voices, also lingering over the arrowholes in his target (we’d taped one up as a reminder of the archery we tried recently) with some impressive explosive sounds more reminiscent of guns than arrows. But then he was back with us.

He continued to do some creative camera work while we looked up Bernoulli online and I read aloud a bit about his scientific work. Anoif listened with polite interest, and Mail made eye contact when appropriate but was often completely missing, having dashed in to his room to create a little light saber joust between some action figures, then stop in awe of some birds outside the window, just then noticing the Lilo and Stitch decal on the window and having a little chat with them. Meanwhile, I was in the kitchen, looking at a picture of Bernoulli, all white powdered wig, and Mail zipped back over, zoomed in on the pic. All of this took place in about a five minute period.

Suspecting he might not be paying any notice to our research, I asked him if he knew who the guy was and what we were doing. “Yup. Bernoulli. Bernoulli’s law, air pressure lowers, things smoosh together. Mom, when you see this video you are going to be so happy because of all of the funny things I did.” “I bet I am!” I admitted. Then he got a dirty look from his sister over something, maybe he poked her. The woes of the firstborn.

Then he was off again. Anoif and I were cleaning up the cans and talking about his incompressible flow equation and how math is used in science to express laws with formulas. This was sort of an introductory talk about these matters, not an in depth look , but a taste which roused some curiosity….

Meanwhile, Mail had set down the camera in the living room and was demonstrating some of his magic tricks in a hammy fashion and having a frank chat with the camera about how amazing Legos are and how little moms understand these matters. We had planned to do some math with Legos, inspired by Justyna, and he was on a mission to isolate 40 or so of them for this purpose. Naturally, that required some Lego raider ships to go on missions of their own. The funny thing was, in watching this, that I could see how he’s honed his abilities to be responsive to us, because at any point in the film, whenever we utter his name or ask anything of him he is able to switch his attention immediately to us and respond pleasantly and oblige us in most cases with whatever we request, be it information, input or help. It’s just that while I’m plodding forward through life in a linear fashion he is on 50 different planes of time and space, playing, learning, interacting, imagining, making noise, remembering, not staying focused in one field but seemingly able to switch between them without stress or worry or any sort of loss of experience. Its like he doesn’t have time to slow down to our level. In the past this has caused me distress, but watching his video I suddenly got it from his point of view. He’s having fun. Life is exciting. He’s like a puppy set loose on a spring day with a bunch of rabbits, bubbles and butterflies in a field of flowers. What to do first? Heck, just go where the chaos blows you and still have energy left over for some Frisbee after. Who cares if all of those nice people who feed you are looking cross and confused? Just humor them with a little affection and go get that stick they keep tossing your way and they’ll let you do your thing most of the time.

It made me happy to watch. I’m sure there are folks out there who’d see the same video and who would think of this boy as scattered or undisciplined. I’m sure he’d be a handful in school for any beleaguered teacher. But I see an almost 8 year old who is playful , funny, energetic, adaptable, lightning quick in thought and wit, and completely unintimidated by standard procedures. I feel a little twinge for all of the times I’ve been frustrated by his frenetic pace and forced his attention back on the straight and narrow path it can’t walk contentedly on. He’s never walked anywhere in his life. One must always skip, pretend to fly, run or barrel places. Why would his mind be any different than his body? They are unanimous. As a parent there are just times when it has to be linear and focused and when I insist he be that way for important matters (crossing the street, eating dinner, etc…) he has grown and matured because of it. But I can see now that nothing I or anyone can do could really contain that kind of enthusiasm for life and tame it. All I can do is keep plodding away and watch him pick up some of the pieces as he zips around, and maybe hand him a camera so he can get it all down for review later. If only I could find the video camera charger.