Yesterday as we were driving to the vet (Vader has a corneal ulcer which I have had before and it HURT, poor guy!) and then to ballet camp, Katrina started asking questions. First, she asked about why we do fireworks on the Fourth of July. That one was okay to explain. I even mentioned that she had a great-great-great-great grandpa or someone to that extent who fought in a big battle to earn our freedom from the British. Although I do not enjoy talking about wars and battles to her, that one I could handle.
Then my deep thinker says something to the extent of, "So how did everyone decide what words we were going to use?" I asked her to explain more and she said, "How did everyone agree that they were going to call things by the same name? How did they agree to name things the same things like calling a tree a tree? How did they decide that?". Hmm, okay. . . . . so you are five, right? Why don't you ask me why the sky is blue (blue has the shortest wavelength of all the colors -I have studied this and know how to explain this one - typical childhood question I have heard).
So while traveling at 70-72 mph, I started thinking how to answer this. I went back in time to the early days of the evolution of humans and explained that humans didn't used to look like we do now and that way back when we used to communicate by making different sounds like grunts. As our vocal tract evolved (I know all of this education would come in handy at some point - by the way, random fact - as our vocal tracts and airways evolved to allow us to speak, it also made us the most likely species to choke), we began to be able to make more complex sounds and eventually the amount of sounds we could make evolved to the point it is today. Depending on where you lived, groups of people a long, long time ago decided to call certain objects certain names and that was decided upon by the group (or by the inhabitant with the biggest club - didn't mention that, but creates a funny image in my head). Groups that lived in different places, not knowing what people who lived very far away were calling objects different names, gave those objects there own names. That is why today we have lots of different languages like Spanish, English, French, German, etc. A tree in English is called a tree, in Spanish it is arbol.
I must have answered her question as she became quiet. Holy cow, kid.
2 comments:
Wow Julie!!! What an answer!!
It sounds like your answer may have been so long that Katrina didn't want to risk another 30 minute lecture by asking another question.
That is a good strategy. Out talk those little people.
That was very educational. Thank you. Smart girl. Both of you.
Funny comment, Mom!
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