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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