Love and Sciences

Today in the van we had the following discussion …

Emma: I love Mrs. Tan and Evadne. [a close friend and her daughter, who is Luke’s age]
Mama: What about Jacqueline? [Evadne’s twin sister]
Emma: Yes, I love Jacqueline!
Mama: What about Mr. Tan?
Emma: No, I do not love Mr. Tan.
Luke: Emma, why do you not love Mr. Tan?!?
Emma: Because he is a man!  Luke, I can have Mrs. Tan and Jacqueline and Evadne, and you can have Mr. Tan and James and William. [older and younger brothers to the twins]

A long discussion then ensued which basically involved Luke and Emma arguing over which of them could “have” which of the Tans.  Luke wanted them all.  Emma wanted everything divided evenly.  We then talked about the blessings of having many different kinds of friends – people who are like you and people who are different from you.

Eventually, we wound up talking about the benefits of conversing with people who are a different age from you – both younger children and grown-ups.  I told the children that some children only like to talk to other people their own age (i.e. other kids), but reminded them that it can be a great joy to talk to grown-ups, too.  After some quiet reflection …

Emma (stated as if the final proof of the theory): Uncle Ryan is not two.  [i.e. “That makes sense to me, because I love talking to Uncle Ryan and I know that he is not my age.”]
Luke (clearly understood her point): Yes, it is a great blessing to talk to Uncle Ryan, because he knows many sciences, so then you can know many sciences, too!