QUESTIONS AT 5

His mindset was that of a five-year-old at five—whether yes or no! But there was something alarming, and it was his habit of questioning. Alarming to everyone, yet no one noticed because he was just five, and for others, that was reason enough to dismiss his questioning. Oh, come on, a "questioning skill"? Is that really a thing? No, not at all. How could it be a skill? Or perhaps the reasoning was simply that a five-year-old couldn't possibly be skillful.

"Stop, just stop, don't ask that!" or "Come on, I told you earlier, I won't tell you again!" or "Hearing everything and then asking in a gathering, 'Oh, you were the one who asked that silly question. How could you say that?'" These were just a few examples.Listing only three doesn't mean these were the only reasons; there were many. But the impact of just these three on that five-year-old was tremendous.He thought his questions were unbearable, that he was abused simply for asking them. He wasn't answered; he and his questions were a joke. He was perceived as a carefree child who, according to everyone else, would only think the things they tried or wished to make him think. No one cared that, although he was a child, he was a complete human being; he could think, perhaps abruptly, but he could think.He thought all of this. Who was responsible for these thoughts? Who were they? Who provoked these thoughts in that young mind? Just because of one or a few unanswered questions, his mind was filled with countless others.Oh yes, it wasn't the others' fault; it was the five-year-old's mistake that he asked an abrupt question. He simply shouldn't have...