Our son, the mathematician

A recent case of HL's ability to amaze us... A couple weeks ago, HL was telling me about a chess set we could get. "It would have policemen on one side and bad guys on the other. But there would only be four policemen on this side of the board and 1 on the other side. The bad guys would have three on their side and..." He went silent for just a moment, a look of deep concentration on his face. "..two on the other side." I was intrigued that both the policemen and the bad guys had a total of five guys and so I prodded him, "Why would they be set up that way?" I asked HL. "Because if the policemen have four and one, that's five. So if the bad guys have three on one side, they have to have two on the other to make it fair." First of all, I'm amazed that he was able to do that math in his head- no fingers involved. But most of all, I am pleased that he was concerned with having the showdown be fair to both sides. Now I know that life is not always fair, and I don't necessarily want him growing up thinking it is. But at the same time, I am proud to know that my four year old realizes what it is to be fair. Not to mention the fact that it takes compassion to want to be fair in the first place. So when my son is exhibiting the fact that he is a male, and males are, by instinct, aggressive, these are the memories I conjure in my head.