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Baby Sherlock

Do you remember the game Clue? “Mrs. White did it! In the drawing room! With… the candlestick!” The board, with its top-secret cards tantalizing enclosed on the board’s center, is one of the first games I remember enjoying. (Ok, throw in Candy-land and Chutes and Ladders, but then what five-year old doesn’t like candy and slides?) Along with an enjoyment for Clue, I was an avid fan of the Boxcar Children—those sleuthing siblings who found a mystery wherever they went. I read every book that existed in the series at the time. Mysteries are hard to resist, especially when neatly packaged in a book guaranteeing the mystery will be solved.  

Felicity finds mysteries daily. It is a mystery how the shoelaces bend when she touches them. It is a mystery that her car seat has strange buckles. And any small object is mystery food waiting to be tasted. Mama’s voice in the shower is a mystery. And if she pulls the curtains just right, she solves The Case of Where is Mama. Her arms bounce up and down, she smiles wide, and claps at the thrill of a case solved.

We’re hard-wired to solve mysteries: we need to ask the question, “why?” We desire to seek results. Innovation happens because inventors wanted to figure out why a thing did or didn’t do what they wanted. Discovery ends when we stop asking, “why?” and “how?”  


Reports tell me that in a year or so Felicity will start asking, “Why?” Reports tell me it is a dreaded stage for parents. I hope when the why stage comes I remember to see it as Felicity’s natural curiosity puzzling out the world. I want to welcome the whys as long as they are real questions of curiosity, because everyone knows, sometimes kids say why, just because…

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