“Did you have any dreams last night?” I asked the four-year-old boy yesterday.
“The purple guy saw me,” said the four-year-old boy, “and I fighted the purple guy and then we fighted and I kicked him into the swimming pool and he couldn’t swim.”
“What happened?” I asked. “Did he drown?”
“Yeah!!” shouted the four-year-old boy triumphantly. “And then someone was talking about getting germs and then a monkey came and he dropped something that he was holding on someone’s head, so that would spread a germ, wouldn’t it?”
“Would it?” I asked.
“Yes,” the four-year-old boy told me.
“So the monkey scratched his head?” I asked.
“No,” said the four-year-old boy. “He dropped something onto someone’s head and that would spread a germ. And then he snatched something off someone, so now he got a germ. And then he passed it to me and I didn’t want it, but he just maked me hold it and then I got a germ.”
“What sort of germ was it?” I asked. “Did you see it?”
The four-year-old boy shook his head.
“Because it was a small germ?” I asked.
“I did not want it,” the four-year-old boy told me. “It was smaller than me.”
Also yesterday – slightly related by the idea of letting your mind think whatever it wants to think – I saw a copy of the latest What If?
British Mensa has a SIG – a ‘Special Interest Group’ – called What If? which issues a regular newsletter suggesting questions which members might want to answer. The latest issue has these New Questions to Ponder:
– What if rain was alcoholic?
– What if skis and toboggans were the only legal form of transport when it snows?
– What if we were limited to saying 200 words a day?
– What if we had a maximum wage (including bonuses) as well as the minimum one?
– What if all retail outlets, garages, factories et cetera were by law required to be controlled and run by only one nuclear family and share selling became illegal?
– What if all serious questions could only be replied to with a silly answer, and vice versa?
– What if it were possible to create a Jurassic Park?
– What if you really were what you eat?
– What if humans shed their skin like snakes as they grew?
It would be interesting to ask the four-year-old boy what his answers to some of those questions might be. Particularly the last two.
I must ask him.
SO IT GOES - John Fleming's blog 