Baby Steps

A ten-month old baby

sits on the floor surrounded

by wooden blocks.

The baby picks up one

block at a time, fixes its

eyes on the cube, twists

it round and round in its

hands not knowing

what to make of such

a thing.

Baby puts the block

down and reaches

for another, a different

color, different forms

pressed into all sides.

(You and I would

recognize these as

alphabet blocks,

each one with a

different raised letter

on all-6 sides.

Baby is fascinated,

each block a different

letter, yet each block

similar in shape and

size.

Although the baby

is surrounded by

26-blocks, each

with a letter from

A to Z, baby has no

concept yet of numbers

or letters of the alphabet.

When it comes time

will baby be the one to

question what all these

blocks with different

images mean or will

a parent or sibling

tell her about letters

of the alphabet, about

how each letter when

combined with other

letters spell words and

words are what we

read and speak as

human beings to learn

and communicate?

A Thought arises.

Oh my, how complicated

this existence and the

newly found self-awareness

of me seems to be.

So many questions and

answers, all beginning

and completed with these

26-letters from A to Z

in planned and sequential

combinations are needed to

know before learning anything.

The word to describe this

process with which to begin,

baby is told to “memorize.”

At first, one must “memorize.”

How on God’s Green Earth

will baby ever learn all

there is to know when

I don’t even know

what “men-o-size” means?

The word is “mem-o-rize”

not “men-o-size.”

One must begin with A, B, C…

Eventually you shall learn,

baby is told. Then you will

understand how mankind

to which species you belong

eventually got to the moon.

Yeah right, ten-month old baby

thinks, everyone knows only a

jumping cow can do that.

            -30-

Chris Hanch 4-9-2021