MORE FAMILY LESSONS

As we walked, Joshua asked abruptly, “What kind of pet should I get, Papa?” “A pet?” I asked, frowning. “Well, I guess I can tell you the various ‘Pros and Cons’ about different kinds of pets.” I gathered my thoughts for a moment, and then said, “Well, let’s start with the easiest one: fish. They’re the easiest to take care of, because all you have to do to take care of them is feed them once or twice a day, and then clean the fish tank out occasionally. Now, in terms of disadvantages, I suppose the biggest disadvantage is that all you can do is look at them; you can’t take them out of the fish tank and pet them, or play with them, or teach them tricks.” “I like to feed your fish,” Joshua said. I nodded, and then continued, “Next in terms of ease are probably cats; you have to feed cats two or three times a day, and this usually involves opening a can of cat food, as well as refilling their water bowl. You also have to set up a litter box for them, which is a place where they can go poo-poo. Then you have to change this litter every few days, which is kind of a disgusting job. But on the bright side, cats are very clean animals, so you’ll probably never have to give your cat a bath―although you may have to pick up an occasional hairball.” *** “I wanted to go on the Nature Walk,” Joshua said. “Well, we’ll have to wait until it gets sunny for a couple of weeks in a row, so that the water in all this mud evaporates.” “What’s that?” Joshua asked, as we began walking the other direction. “‘Evaporate’? That’s when the sun, or just being in the air, makes water seem to disappear,” I replied. “Have you ever seen your Mommy wipe off the kitchen counter, so that it’s wet? Or noticed that when your Daddy washes the cars on the weekend, how the sidewalk gets wet? Well, in a little while, all that water and wetness is gone, because it gets taken up into the air; that’s called ‘evaporation.’ The sun or anything hot makes things evaporate even faster; so that’s why, assuming it doesn’t rain again, the water in the mud here will eventually evaporate and the Nature Walk will be dry, so that we can walk through it again.” “But where does the water go?” Joshua asked. “Up into the air,” I said, pointing to the sky. “That’s where clouds and rain come from. And after it rains, the water from all the puddles starts to evaporate again, making more clouds. This whole process is called the ‘hydrological cycle’; you’ll study it in school, in another year or two.” *** I went over and put my hand on Joshua’s shoulder, and directed him to come stand by Nana and I. “Okay, now I will demonstrate the lunar cycle for you both.” “Right here? In the parking lot?” Nana sniffed, looking at me as if I were crazy. “Oh, come on; you’re the one who brought it up,” I replied. I motioned for her to stand still, and said, “You can be the sun; that way, you don’t have to move.” I said to Joshua, “Okay, Nana’s the sun, and I’m the earth; Nana basically just stays in one place, while I spin around on my axis, like this…” and I started to spin around in one place, which caused Joshua to laugh. I put my hands on Joshua’s shoulders, and moved him in-between Nana and I, then I said, “Now, you’re the moon; and you go around me about once a month, but you’re always facing me. That’s why we can never see the ‘dark side’ of the moon.” Guiding him, I had him walk in a circle around me, as Nana looked at us, frowning. I said to Joshua, “Now, Mr. Moon; half of you is always facing the sun, and so that side of you seems ‘lit,’ to me. But depending on which way I’m facing, I may not be able to see all of your ‘lit’ side; and when you’re in-between the sun and me, I can’t see any of your ‘lit’ side. So that’s what makes the ‘phases’ of the moon; it’s approximately a monthly cycle, during which I can, in the beginning, see all of your ‘lit’ side, but then gradually changing until I can’t see any of your ‘lit’ side; and then gradually changing back so that I can see all of your ‘lit’ side again, when it’s a ‘full moon,’ for me.” “Well, the sun is going into the store,” Nana said, and she started walking away. “Spoilsport,” I said, taking Joshua’s hand, and walking with him toward the store. “That was fun, Papa,” Joshua said. “Good,” I replied. “See, science doesn’t have to be boring.” *** When we came to a problem that involved adding a negative number, I suggested, “Think of it like football; if your team gains seventeen yards on the first play, and then they lose twelve yards on the second play, how much have they gained or lost, since the first play?” He frowned as he thought hard. “Uhh… five yards gained?” he said tentatively. “Right!” I replied. *** “You should never hit your brother! You’re supposed to stick up for each other, just like you should stick up for your sisters.” I nodded my agreement, and then said, “And even if someone else does something bad to your first, that doesn’t excuse you doing something bad back to him; and usually when you do something bad back to someone, he’ll just do something else bad to you, and it just goes on and on from there.” “Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Nana said. I nodded, and said, “You should always follow the ‘Golden Rule,’ which is, ‘Treat other people the way you would want them to treat you.’ So if you want people to be nice to you, you need to first be nice to them.” *** Joshua asked, “Papa, how come it gets so hot during the summer?” “It’s kind of like this,” I said, facing him. “During the summer months, the Earth actually kind of leans toward the Sun more than it does in winter; that’s why it gets hotter.” I went over to a portable lamp that was on the kitchen counter, and plugged it in, and motioned for the boys to come over to me. Taking the boys’ hands, I said, “Put your hands under this light; see how you can feel the heat from it?” They nodded, and I said, “Now tilt your hand away from the light; see how it’s not as hot? Whereas when you tilt your hand back towards the light, it feels hotter.” Releasing their hands, I said, “So that’s why it’s hotter in the summer―in our country, at least―because the Earth is leaning towards the Sun. Today happens to be the first day of summer, which is also known as the ‘Summer Solstice.’ That means that our part of the Earth is facing towards the Sun more than during any other day in the year; and that’s also why we can see the Sun for longer during the summer, than during the winter.” *** “I wonder if I should go straight from high school to the NBA,” he said. I said, “Well, there’s a lot to more to college than just playing basketball. Not only does college give you a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to grow and mature, you learn so much more about history, science, and the world in general during college, that it’s pretty sad to see the cost of college getting out of reach for more and more young people.” “But when I’m in the NBA, I’ll have millions of dollars, and won’t have to worry about anything!” he said, leaning back in his seat. I smiled, and said, “That’s fine; but even that doesn’t last forever.” *** I said, “Back before electric lights had been invented, the amount of sunlight was very important; so people would have a big celebration on the Winter Solstice, to celebrate the fact that the days were going to start getting ‘longer’ again, and the weather would start getting warmer, again.” I continued my explanation, “So people in very cold countries like Scandinavia would bring an evergreen tree into the house around Winter Solstice, to remind them that the weather was going to start getting warmer again, and the trees would start blooming again,” I said. “So when some people came to this country from places like Scandinavia, they brought with them their old tradition of bringing an evergreen tree into the house with them; and since Christmas happens around this same time of year, the evergreen became a ‘Christmas tree’..."