I took him for a walk late two nights ago (no, not anywhere near as late as I’m writing this entry). We’re up on a bench, or in the foothills under mountains. Obscured by houses in front of us but down in the valley to the far south there were four strobe lights swirling about in tandem, spreading their beams of light high up and across the sky in a swoop far outward, then around again and joining in to one brighter beam for an instant, then spreading again, and so on. Mago liked these, and I thought I’d explain them to him.
Me: “Way back behind those houses and down in the valley, there are four robot arms shining those lights. The arms swoop around like this” (swooping my arm) “.. and it makes the lights shine around the sky. They spread out and then come back together. They’re saying ‘come here, we have something to sell’ – or that’s what the people who are shining the lights would say if we went there.”
This seemed to satisfy his curiosity about them, and he blathered about other things and I joined him until suddenly he was talking about “powers”, and I wasn’t quite following him. I said “What?” and he pointed to the strobe lights in the sky over on our left –
Mago: “You can see their powers. Those are the robot powers.”
I was beside myself when he said this – I don’t think he’s never seen Strong Bad*, I don’t know where he picked up the idea of power as light, but it works alright – however, he wouldn’t be dissuaded that these were simply lights in the sky – in between laughing I tried several times to clarify to him that they are just lights – but he corrected me, no, those are robot powers, and you can see the robot powers.
Some while later I gave him the noun for it – strobe lights [whoops! That should be search lights]. That seemed to change his mind on the matter (not that I would necessarily want his mind changed!) – he began using that term. Apparently you’ve got to give him the most solid noun possible – “light” is still too abstract; “robot powers” is, uh, more accessible.
*..and if so, are you some kind of robot? And if so, what kind of powers do you have? Do you use them for good, or for awesome?
..
Her name is Yoshimi
she’s a black belt in karate
working for the city
she has to discipline her body
..
‘Cause she knows that
it’d be tragic
if those evil robots win
I know she can beat them..