The Age of Why

Oh, I remember this stage with Cearra.

She'd ask why the sky was blue; I'd try to give her an age-appropriate answer (okay, okay, I'd give her the best my non-scientific mind could muster), and she'd be quiet for a few minutes. She'd then argue with me that the sky wasn't really blue at all.

Owen asks me why it rains; I try to give an answer that contains real learning information on his level (and mine), and he's quiet for a few minutes. Then he asks me another question.

We cover many topics ...

Biology: Why do cats have whiskers? Why do hiccups hurt? Why does juice turn into pee-pee? Why do girls sit down to go pee-pee?

Earth Sciences: Why are rocks gray? Why is this a hill? Why is a rainbow those colors?

Philosophy: Why are people good? Why did you find me? And the question that has puzzled deep thinkers for years ... Why does SpongeBob live in a pineapple under the sea?

English: Why is "stop" spelled like that? Why does the letter "j" make that sound?

The World Around Us: Why do we have a red car? Why do the hamsters have wheels? Why does that (school) bus have stop signs? Why does red mean stop? Why does that boy have long hair? Why do our tires have spikes?

And so on ... and on ... and on.