On a spring day in 2008, my daughter came to my wife and I, and asked “Mom, Dad, why doesn’t the universe have any corners?” A deep question from a 6 year old.
We told her, we couldn’t answer her question, but that we would go to the library and try to find an answer there. I took my daughter to the Whitemud Crossing library where we found some childrens’ books on space. My daughter also found a DVD called The Elegant Universe (highly recommended).
We came home and I left my daughter with her books and her new DVD. I proceeded to fall asleep on the couch, patting myself on the back for being such a great dad.
My daughter woke me an hour later giggling and excited. She said “Dad you could take a wormhole to work and be there instantly!” I asked her if I should do that and she replied “Dad! Don’t be silly! We’d have to get dark matter to make a wormhole and the scientists can’t find it in this part of the universe yet.” Oh.
If parenting is done correctly, the children should one day surpass the parents. I’m a good parent. My daughter surpassed me on this day when she asked: “Dad, I’ve got a few questions about string theory…” When I was her age, I was too busy chewing on pieces of lego to think about theoretical physics.
All I could think was “Damn, she’s already smarter than me”.
The Universal Chan 