a story (a true one)

One summer day when my son was four, we were playing wiffleball in the yard. He began swinging his plastic bat into the leaves on a low branch of an overhanging oak.

When I told him, "Stop! the tree needs it leaves!" he lowered the bat and asked me why.

So, me being a teaching type and him being a cosmically comprehending type, I explained photosynthesis to a four-year-old.....

He was quiet for a moment, and then his face lit up. It may be a cliche, but there is no better description. His face simply shone.

"So," he said, in a hushed, reverent tone, "the tree....eats...the light!"

Kids get it.