Carson on new Nook

Today is my oldest grandson’s birth. He is 14 and very creative started his own page on this site, Carson Graf, and contributed to the Graf Kids web page. But not much lately.

Since entering middle school he has been too busy playing sports, being in th middle school band, participating in 4-H, and playing his various video games, the latest being on his new I Pod Touch.

In my view children reach the peak of creative imagination at age three. At three they have not started school and learned how to label and classify everything. I often say that I want to be like a three year old when I grow up. Being that I am 68, people take my remark as a joke. But there is some kernel of truth to this wish.

I mentioned my desire to be three in an email to a friend I recently met.
She wrote back saying: “According to one of my professors in Barcelona, Picasso said that that it took him his entire life to learn to draw like a child. I think being three is a wonderful goal.”

Thinking about the paintings of Picasso I can see how he brought the wisdom of his age to the creative imagination of a three year old.

My grandson has maintained his love of reading. So for his birthday and Christmas this year we purchased him a “nook”, an electronic reader where he can download books and allow his imagination flourish in reading.

Thinking about young men and woman, just a few years older than my grandson going to war “to kill or be killed” saddens me and makes me ponder how unimaginative and creative war can be. How many famous warriors can we name that were great artists? If our education system was based more on imagination than linear thinking and pasting test we might be producing less soldiers and more creative, nonviolent peacemakers. Oh, to be three!

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