Dylan has taken interest in every single country on this glorious Earth. Even small ones like Kiribati and Kosovo have tingled his imagination. But how do I explain to a five-year-old the tumultuous history of a place like Kosovo that led to its formation? Some countries don't even recognize its existence, as if it were still part of Serbia. As if the struggle for independence, the attempted genocide of Albanian Muslims never even happened. He wants to know what the people there are like, what happened in this little country to distinguish it from the others. I don't know, I told him.
The whole Balkan region is a geographical mess. He is used to the way things are on his globe and World Game, where boundaries are in order and never change. Where people appear to be content with their nationalities. Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Croatia, Albania, and the rest; all fragments of a shattered Yugoslavia that failed on its promise to integrate the land of the Slavs. Nationalism, the overblown fountain of pride, raising animosity in disparate peoples, has thankfully never entered his conscience. Countries like these may as well have no boundaries.
Which would do well for me against him in the World Game. I tried 100% to beat him yesterday, and he still pulled it off. He is smarter than a Jew teaching quantum mechanics. My prodigy will be far better at geography than I ever was.
No comments:
Post a Comment