As some of you know, I studied philosophy in university and have an M.A. in the subject. Nonetheless, I was a little taken aback by the following conversation I had with Gareth just before our final family Clay class.

Gareth: After this, will the story be finished?

Me: Ummm….Well, this is the final clay class, so after this the class will be finished.

Gareth: OK….So the story will be finished then?

Me: This is the last class, but I’m not sure what story you mean, Gareth.

Gareth: The story we are in.

Me: (laughing) We’re not in a story! Life is not a book.

Gareth (after a pause): Are we real?

Loving these deep thoughts of a 4-year-old. Reminds me of the passage in Descartes Meditations where he wonders if we are part of a someone’s dream or real, and how we could tell. As Jerome Bruner would say, “The questions of the kindergartner and the graduate student differ in degree, but not in kind.”