Chris and I were talking and said something about Pope John Paul II. Caroline asked us if he was still alive. We told her no, he actually had died about a week and a half or two after she was born.
Her response: "Wow, he didn't get to live very long, did he?"
I love how they have very little concept of time at this age. I wonder if she really understands that I was once a child myself!
It's not a lack of conception of time. She's counting from when she became aware of that pope -- or any pope for that matter. From the photos she seems preschool age, say 4 or 5. I'd guess she barely caught the last year of JP2, if that.
ReplyDeleteMy theory of time and age is that one's sense of the passage of time is related to the proportion of a given period to one's age. To a two-year-old, one year is half a lifetime, whereas to a 59-year-old it's 1/59th of the experienced lifespan. Call it Cecilieaux's theory of relativity.
Right, I meant that she has a childlike concept of how time works. She only knows what she has experienced... very interesting. it makes those early years so much more important, looking at it that way... never again will a person go through half his life in such a short period of time. So much learning and growth is going on as they double their lifetimes so quickly. Me, on the other hand... it will take me about 30 years to double my current age. My youngest will only take 18 months to do the same!
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