based on my observations
It’s my fourth grade classroom, at a West Olympia elementary school in the mid nineties (replete with mauve, teal and salmon detailing). We have the fourth and fifth grades together, actually - part of this ‘Alternative Education Program’ idea that’s going around. On this particular afternoon, we have all pulled our chairs away from the tables and over to the blackboard into a sort of class huddle, some of us standing or on the floor. We’ve begun to take a look at our solar system, and my amazing teacher has just explained to us the mind-blowing phenomenon of gravity and our orbit around the sun. It is amazing. Amazing enough that even as I try to listen - and I am focusing quite hard indeed - my brain runs off with it all and has its way. But then, to make sure we have the concept, he asks us to raise our hands if we can explain why it is the world itself is turning.
Of course, I raise my hand. Immediately. And I explain to them, matter-of-factly, from somewhere off in the clouds: it feels to me sometimes that as we walk, we turn the earth.
This, as I recall, was followed by an awkward silence, then some quiet juvenile laughter. My teacher (as wonderful as he was) let me know that wasn’t quite the answer he was looking for, and went on to survey the rest of the waving hands.
I remember that moment from time to time, especially when I’m having difficulty working around an idea about the world that seems established. It helps quite a bit to remind myself that the closer you look at something, the more explaining there is to do - but when you swing out wide and let that focus fuzz up a little, so simple a story can suffice to satisfy the Why of things. Heck, we used to be satisfied that the earth was flat, until we traveled far enough to notice things disappearing over the horizon. Chances are that before that point, the world at large was just as comfortable with its existing notions about the universe as we are with what we believe to be the truth now (however comfortable that is).
Of course I’ll never stop digging for Why, or looking at things as closely as I possibly can. I simply shall not ever forget how nice it is to have a little answer, and just let it imply that something more tantalizing hides underneath.
