My Quirky Little Family of Three

There's never really been a shortage of conversation in my home. My husband and I have a talking relationship. We discuss current events, our jobs, and all aspects of our child rearing. Years ago, I recall my best friend from high school telling me how cool she thought it was that Paul and I talk about stuff. She said she and her husband never had the kinds of conversations we did. I never thought much of it, because it's all I've ever known. As our son turned a year, we worried little about his ability to talk, and were more focused on him being able to hold his chubby little body up to walk. He was a late walker and an early talker, and he hasn't shut up since! I say this lovingly in acknowledgement of his gift for gab. And might I say, at seventeen he doesn't just talk to hear himself, he loves debate and philosophy.

Yesterday my husband, son, and I set out in the car to meet up with my brother-in-law, his fiancé, and the kids for the day. We had a good thirty minute car ride, and had I recorded our conversations, I'm curious what others would think. The topics got more intense from one to the next...

Our first exchange was a debate- them against me. I had made a statement about an idea I had in the shower that morning, and I wanted to jot it in my notebook. When I initially spoke the sentence, I realized it wasn't grammatically correct. However I stated it, it sounded like I was going to be writing in the shower. I giggled and corrected the statement aloud. Then, somehow I started talking about how I could be writing in the shower- in my head. One of the smart asses, can't remember which one, says, "Then it wouldn't be writing. It would be thinking." This sparked a healthy debate about whether a writer is actually writing, if they are not engaged in the act of putting the words on paper. We went through various verbs and scenarios such as a writer who uses a keyboard- "No," they said. "Then it's typing." I insisted they were wrong. A writer is anyone who creates a piece of writing, no matter how they engage in the task. They disagreed.

I asked them then, "How do you distinguish between the physical act of writing words with the act of creating a piece of writing?" They didn't seem to think there needed to be a distinction. We bounced around the words publish and create when I asked them how you would refer collectively to all kinds of people who write on keyboard, with a pen, spoken word poetry, etc. All of this had us in stitches, while they tried to trip me up as I danced around explanations of why I disagreed with them. "Obviously," I said, "You are not writing people." And we laughed some more. All we could agree on was that all of these people were creators. My son tried to argue they were publishers as well, but I disagreed arguing if the creation never makes it out of a person's mind, it's not published. They both insisted in that case, no writing had been done either. We laughed all the way into the next topic of conversation.

Graphic of Dyson Sphere- Credit: SentientDevelopments.com

Not sure why it was on his mind, but the conversation moved to my son asking us if we ever heard of Dyson sphere theory? You can read about it on your own, but in a nutshell it's the idea of creating a sphere around a planet's star to harness the energy for a civilization. Yes, my son reads this stuff for pleasure and curiosity. Neither my husband, nor I, had ever heard of a Dyson, other than the vacuum cleaner guy. Nope, wrong Dyson. This Dyson theorized if we searched for the existence of this type of structure, we might find evidence of advanced civilizations elsewhere in the galaxy. You guessed it. This all led to the discussion about whether we believed in alien life forms, and if so, whether or not we believed they had ever infiltrated our life here on Earth. Ideas were exchanged about the possibility of other life forms living here before humans ever evolved and possible explanation for structures and occurrences on Earth that are seemingly impossible to explain. Finally, as we got close to our destination, the Big Bang and G-d.

If you are easily offended by parents who believe in G-d, discussing with their children the possibility that G-d doesn't exist in the traditional form as taught in the major world religions, just move on. You'll want to stop here. Things got complex as we discussed our understanding of G-d as we were raised, and other ideas about how G-d may exist differently. We talked about aspects of Evolution and the Big Bang Theory. We tried to consider how different theories about human beings and other possible life forms could be explained and we agreed about a modern understanding of G-d. We talked about the commonly used phrase, "I'm a G-d-fearing man/woman," and why anyone would fear their G-d. We agreed G-d (no matter your religion or beliefs) wouldn't want people to fear G-d. By the time we reached our destination, my mind was blown. We covered more in the 30-40 minutes than many college philosophy classes cover in a session. And before we got out of the car, I asked both of them, "Do you think other families talk about stuff like this?" My son laughed and said, "No way." We looked at each other and laughed. Then we went and rode go-karts and played mini golf.

All in a day. I love my little quirky family of three.