Connecting the Dots

A year or so back, my daughter asked how mountains are formed. I told her about the (tectonic) plates that move, bump into each other, and cause the land to “fold” thereby creating mountains. It was fairly easy to show that effect with a bedsheet, but there was no reaction from her. So I left it there.

Now she’s 6. Some time back, I pointed to the globe and asked her whether the eastern edge of South America and the western edge of Africa look like they “fit” into each other, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Yes, she said. And doesn’t Madagascar’s western edge align with the eastern edge of Africa? She looked and agreed. And doesn’t Madagascar’s eastern edge align with India’s western edge? This isn’t such a good fit, so her response was a bit muted. It is, I continued, India used to be a part of Africa, and started moving to reach where it is today. And when it bumped into Asia, it led to the folding of the land to create mountains, what we call the Himalayas, I told her. Now she was interested. I added that the collision of India with Asia was still in progress, which is why the height of the Himalayas is increasing even today.

Sometime after that, she was reading a book where Geronimo Stilton flies to Nepal to look for his friend (and a yeti). Her ears stood up. So will he be going to the Himalayas, she asked. Yes. And he’ll climb the Himalayas to search for the yeti? Yes. But if the height of the Himalayas is still increasing, won’t he keep rising further and further as he climbs, she asked. Maybe even hit the sky? I was surprised that she even remembered that stuff, and even more so that she could combine that with something in the story and take it to its logical conclusion!

The next day, I pointed at the Andes on the globe and told her that’s another range like the Himalayas. In passing, I mentioned that the Andes act as the border between the two countries on either side. Oh, do the Himalayas act as a border between India and China, she asked. Yes, I said. Good, she said, that’ll prevent China from attacking India: they’ll have to climb the mountain, and it’ll be so cold that they’ll freeze! I totally did not see that coming…

But I could see where this was headed next: to the country she dislikes, Pakistan. Do the Himalayas separate India from Pakistan, she asked. Nope, I said. Too bad, she said, we need something like this on the border with them.

Such conversations remind me of something Steve Jobs once said:

“Creativity is just connecting things… (Creative people) connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity.”

Here’s hoping my kid stays that way, and doesn’t become the person who gradually knows more and more about less and less…