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When I was in grade five I designed a perpetual motion machine. Even as a nine year old I was sure that was a super cool idea. I told my Dad about it and he patiently explained that it simply would not work. It was the first time I ever remember doubting him. A suspicion in me began to grow that my Dad may not know every thing.
I saw a little boy at the airport experience that same moment. He was travelling with his mother and grandmother. They were scheduled to depart at five o’clock on the same flight I was on, but the flight was delayed, and so we were waiting to board at departure time. The little boy knew how to read his wristwatch, and when five o’clock came around, he attracted his mother to inform her that they needed to get on the plane. Engaged in her own conversation his mother brushed him off with what the boy clearly considered an inadequate explanation.
Anxious to begin his airplane journey the young man continued to point out this major mistake in the face of clear facts. His mother and grandmother did a poor job and allaying his fears. Armed with a little knowledge and the confidence of youth, the boy was considering the new possibility that his mother may be an idiot. It was then that I saw the expression that prompted this story. It was the hopeless exasperation you reserve for the truly moronic.
We inevitably move on from our belief that our parents and teachers are gods. We come to recognize them as people, faulty and fallible. The pattern swings to the other extreme as children evolve into teenagers who think they are the ones that know everything. The older I get the less I know, and if this continues I will eventually come full circle. I will be certain of nothing, but what was the inexperience and naiveté of my youth, I will call wisdom in my old age.
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Admittedly, this story could also be about what a geeky little kid I was, or how shocking it is that I ended up being an Engineer.
My perpetual motion machine design followed a science class in which I learned that electric motors and generators are essentially the same. I drew a motor and generator feeding one another in a loop. If I made the generator bigger than the motor I could bleed off the extra. I was confident that I was a genius and would be stinky rich. My father telling me that my idea violated the fundamental laws of the universe really pissed me off.
In the same line of thinking:
If you take a five year old, show him a box of Smarties and promptly ask him “What is in this box?”, he will obviously answer “Why smarties of course!”. Then you open it to show him a hand full of crayons, he will look at you and say “O.K.!” The fun question to ask him next is “What do you think the next child will think is in the box of Smarties?”
It’s neat to see the different stages of development in our children’s lives as well as our own and how are actions affect each others future actions.