Saturday 18 May 2013

Conversations



"What do spirits look like?" asked my son the other day. My answer was I don't know, I guess they'd be transparent or more like smoke. He insisted I should have a better idea, I should think hard and imagine how spirits could look like, to be able to define them. I panicked, quickly reached out to my friends on whatsapp for a quick consult (I always do that when I am stuck with these kind of questions). Thankfully one friend saved me and I was ready to challenge my son. "What does light look like?" I asked. He went silent, thought about it and said: "Light is light, you can't define that in shape or texture"... "Exactly" (sighing in relief).

This type of conversation often runs at my house and it never gets  any easier, the questions only escalate in their sophistication as he grows older. He no longer likes it when someone refers to him as kid, he is a boy now. He wants to know and understand everything that happens in front of his eyes, every news that flashes around the house or things he hears at school from older students. Questions like: "Why is the dollar rate rising vs our Egyptian currency?" or "Why the bulletin boards on the ring-road keep changing?" Try to explain those to a 9-year old in a simplified manner.