Last week, my seven-year-old and I went to a lecture by Dr. Ronald Mallett at the Walker. Dr. Mallett, a theoretical physicist, talked about general relativity, special relativity, and the physics of time travel. I really wanted to go – I loved The Quick and the Dead exhibition, and I liked the idea of hearing in a scientist to talk about ideas related to the exhibition’s exploration of time. I was a little worried about how O. would do at the lecture – his first.
It turned out, he loved it. It helped that Dr. Mallett is an engaging speaker, with an inspiring personal story. O. was fascinated by the talk of exploding stars and black holes – from which nothing can escape! It was a lovely night with O. – it was a challenging topic, which we were both interested in, but neither of us knew much about. We were on the same intellectual footing.
I met another parent from the Walker’s parent advisory group – and she noted how much she is enjoying going to things with her daughter (who is about the same age as O.). Now that her daughter is a bit older, she’s finding that they share more interests and can have more in-depth conversations about art, the news, what they’re reading.
O. and I are off all summer – I’m wondering what we should do next. I like the idea of a weekly or bi-weekly mom-son date night, without the two-year-old in tow. Oskar hasn’t seen the Tomás Saraceno exhibition – maybe that’s next.
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