For this assignment, I had to pick one of many suggested prompts. I’m a fan of prompts in all their forms. My favorite short story contest gives writers a genre, a setting, and a character. For example, my story ‘TBD’ was written for a prompt that required me to write a science fiction story that takes place in a garage. One of the characters, not necessarily the protagonist, had to be an electrician. I loved writing that story and, even though it didn’t advance me further in the contest, it’s still my all-time favorite.

The prompt for today’s post came from a list of themes, so I chose ‘difficult conversations.’ That could open up a can of worms but when I read the prompt I thought about my youngest granddaughter. She’s the reason there are gaps in my blog consistency since I look after her twice a week and she stopped napping at around 2 years old. When I watched her older sister, I could write regularly while she slept. Not this child.

When the pandemic struck, I began changing her environment to my house. It gave her a new playmate in her grandfather, but it also gave her new nooks and crannies to explore. Her first discovery was a stack of scientific magazines in our bedroom. They had pictures! That elicited questions!

‘What’s that?’ and ‘What does it do?’ were among her favorites. Boy, was my ability to explain complex topics for a toddler stretched beyond all boundaries of scientific understanding. I learned many things. My science knowledge was slim even though I took a whole bunch of classes in college while pursuing an engineering degree. I had to think fast – her attention span was remarkable for a child her age, but still… .

We talked about birds, lizards, bees, and spiders. We talked about fossils, skeletons, and, her then-favorite, dinosaurs. We talked about stars, constellations, and planets. Those were all easy. Then, one day, she found an article about LIGO – the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory – and it had a diagram of Einstein’s fabric of space-time. I explained what I could and we moved on. But, she pulled me back upstairs the next time and went right to the picture we’d discussed and wanted to know more.

I researched. I found ways to explain how the fabric of space worked. We talked about gravity. We talked about black holes. We talked about the heaviness of astral bodies. She learned to read – and, yes, she picked out words in the science journals. It wasn’t hard for her. She’d already wowed the world with her knowledge of dinosaurs and which was which.

For weeks, she dragged me upstairs and we sat on the bed and talked about galaxies until we finally got to gravitational waves which had been the whole point of the experience. By, then, the pandemic eased and she toddled off to pre-school for half a day twice a week. After school we ‘talked about science,’ and slowly she understood what LIGO was waiting for. When they observed the first indication, she knew what a big deal it was.

Hard conversations require a lot of thought, some knowledge, some understanding, the ability to know you aren’t an expert in all things, and respect for the person you’re talking to. All conversations can become more difficult than they need to be because we tend to forget the part about being thoughtful and blurt out whatever is in our heads which tends to be hurtful. But, that’s another topic.

I learned as much about science as she did. I needed to learn these things as much as she did, too. I want her to have a better science education than I had. She and I have had many hard conversations about many things and I hope we have more. I know I’m looking forward to it.

Until next time. See you later.