a kid made of the right stuff.
Every once in a while something happens that suggests that the world has not yet gone completely to the place below yet. Such happened not long ago, when into my place of business (which deals in "hobby items" ) came a grandmother and a kid, to attend to interests of the latter (I shall not reveal more details due to my feeling that the identies of the persons are best not placed into a public forum). Hardly a notable event, except that as I waited on this kid, I became amazed at the thoroughness of his knowledge of the subject at hand, even exceeding mine in some cases (which, however, is not a formidable feat, now that I think of it). And the extreme efficiency of his shopping habits. That was remarkable enough, but he proved to be unusually polite. At this point one might think that, here is a well-manufactured robot whose programmers have spent much time perfecting his software and installing it with diligence. However, the more I got to know him, the more I realized that was not the whole story, or even necessarily any significant part of it. It became clear that he was a very freindly, considerate, and spontaneous person who seems to be familiar with self-direction, and also seemed to be very people-intelligent -- that is, very aware of people's feelings, in a way that cannot easily be explained as simply a training in manners.. In general, he seemed to have a distinctly intellectual bent (as distinct from, say, the kind of people whose sociability is in reference to sports orientation and physical competitiveness, but not at all at the intellectual level), and I suspect he would be considered a "gifted student". He seemed to be a congenital non-troublemaker, and clearly had inspired certain other children to be interested in the hobby (2 of which came in, one with him and another on another occasion). Maybe that had something to do with his intense interest in the rather intellectual subject of the hobby (which, fortunately, had nothing to do with the gruesome kinds of stuff that attends many intellectual hobbies today -- I speak of one-line games, for example -- nothing of that kind.) As to his origin, I know not a whole lot about it. The little I do know I will not report here, due to the previously mentioned privacy considerations. Whatever the case may be, he and I quickly became friends. I saw him on 2 subsequent occasions, which only improved our relationship. I have not seen him since.