My son's perception of time is skewed. It always has been. He claims that 300 years is not a long time; you have to get into the million+ range to elicit from him a span of time deemed "lengthy".
I spend more time than I really ought to, trying to remember my own perceptions at his age. I do remember sitting in the car while my mom would run errands, becoming more and more furious that her errand-running was causing me an inordinate amount of boredom. I'm certain at least one of my adult neuroses is directly related to those experiences (though even with a gun to my head, I couldn't tell you which one). Thanks a lot mom!
But in all seriousness, I'm fascinated by the curious way my son's brain organizes relative concepts. While it's entirely possible (perhaps even likely) that he's just being oppositional for his own sake of fun, part of me is convinced he really doesn't believe anything less than a million is a "lot". And given that such things are relative...I can't really say he's wrong, can I? I mean, a million of something is a lot. And when compared to 300, a million really is a lot, and 300 really isn't. I can count to 300 comfortably in a sitting. A million? Not so much.
It's these kinds of things that really throw me for a loop. I endeavor to teach my son the nuanced and complicated nature of the world. He often asks me if characters in a movie or show are "good guys" or "bad guys", and I tell him that it largely depends on your perspective. He wants the world to be black and white (understandably), but I can't abide washing the world of it's vibrant (and complicated) colors. He seems to find this, at varying turns, irritating or illuminating, and if it's possible to quantify and predict which one he'll choose, I'm damned if I can figure out how.
So, I do my best to provide him with the length and breadth of the universe (or at least as much as I understand of it), and hope that in time he and I can fill in the blanks together. I think we're in for a treat when we get to E=mc².
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