One hundred and fifteen??!?

Today, a five year old demonstrated some seriously familiar behavior.
On the subway with my husband Jack (our reflection pictured above, finally going to see Avatar), I watched a grandmother and a young child sitting together.
The child looked up to his grandmother and asked, "98?"
And she responded, "Yes that's right."
The child thought for a moment, then looked up again, "99?."
"Uh huh" the Grandmother replied.
The child looked down in his lap, fidgeted his fingers around...
"100" The Grandmother offered.
The boy looked up, a little angry. "I don't want to go past 100! I can't do it!"
"Ok, I just thought you'd like to know, in case you wanted to go further than 99."
They sat in silence for a stop or two. Then the child looked up. "Then what? 199?"
"Nope, 101."
The boy made a face of disbelief, then repeated, "101."
"102" the Grandmother said.
"102" the boy repeated.
And it went this way for a while. They got through 114 in this call-and-response, the boy half paying attention.
"114" she said,
"114" he echoed.
"115" she said.
The boy snapped out of his trance. How could this be? "115??!?!" he exclaimed, looking up at her "One hundred and fifteen???"
How could the numbers go that high??
He looked up at her, emotional, thinking he would never understand.
"Let's go back to 90" the Grandmother said. And with a quick pat on his knee, the unknown was forgotten and the boy happily returned to familiar territory.

It made me think -- if we are all children of this wonderful thing called The Universe -- then we must act like this 5 year old does when we are faced with something new... something that will expand our hearts and minds. We can't believe this change could be right, it's so unfamiliar and unknown! And yet the universe, fully aware that the numbers go to infinity, calmly calls out one number higher than the last, in hopes that we'll learn it and be ready for the next one. Because if we don't progress, if we are unwilling to expand, then we'll stay at level 90, while infinity sits within reach... begging to be invited in.
The wonderful thing is this: the boy will most certainly learn past 100. He'll probably get there tomorrow. And he will instantly forget how incomprehensible it was.

Avatar paled in comparison to the little show these two put on for me.

All this reminds me of another story I recently heard:
A young mother had put her child to sleep and was out in the living room, milling about, when she hears the child call out, "Mom!!! I forgot how to fall asleep!!!"
Hahaha.
Seriously the Gods and the Muses and the Divine must have a little chuckle at us every now and again.
For real.
=)