There are few things more amazing than seeing someone else discover something entirely new for the first time. We live in a world so complex that things such as HarleyFest can be "organized". It's pretty easy to take some of the simpler things for granted, especially once you learn a little bit about the world. Even if you've never taken a single chemistry or physics course, you still know more about these things than you could learn in at least the first few chapters of each textbook.
Last night, I was giving my one year old a bath. She was enjoying the water as usual and likes to show off these days by putting her mouth up to the water and blowing bubbles. I took the cup we use to pour water over her and started pouring a thin stream of water in front of her. Of course, she doesn't know about the four states of matter (although they only taught 3 when I learned them) and what they mean to our world. She just knows she can sit in the tub when it's full of water and she can pick up her rubber ducky to chew on his beak. So as this thin stream of water is hanging in front of her like a thick, glistening strand of silver thread, she does what any of curious baby would do.
She tries to grab it.
But of course, you can't grab a liquid as it's being poured. So she holds her hand in it for a while, almost as if she's trying to decide for herself if it's really there. After a few moments of alternating between "grabbing" at it and letting it splatter against her hand, she looks at me with a question on her face. I can only smile and tell her it's water.
It doesn't make much sense to a one-year old though, does it?