Loving your child's mind: Alana on prophecy

Hey, Ilana, how are you?

I'm good, how are you?

I'm well. You back from Hawaii?

Yes, I am. Sad.

Because it was so much fun in Hawaii?

It was.

Okay, well, welcome back, um, and I thought maybe we'd check in on, um, reading again. We We kind of did some math, science and stuff, but we haven't talked about reading for a while. So tell me what you're reading these days.

Right now I was reading a series called Wings of Fire. It's— I only have the first 8 books, so I'm just rereading all of them because I have to borrow the other books from online. How many? And I'm waiting to— And I'm waiting to borrow one.

How many books are there total in that series?

Uh, maybe 12 or 12, 13, or 14.

Okay, so you're maybe two-thirds or a little bit less the way through them?

Yeah.

So I don't know this series, so tell me what it's about.

Okay, um, so in the first 5 books because it's broken up into 3 different prophecies. Um, so yeah, in the first 5 books, it's all about these 5 dragonets who's supposed to save the world, who's supposed to stop the war and pick a new queen for the SandWing tribe.

Mm-hmm.

Um, 3 royal sisters have been bustling and fighting about it for the last 20 years.

Wow. And can— what happens in the first 5 books? I mean, is there— do they win basically, or what's the kind of—

Yeah, they basically win because at the end of the fifth book, they pick the new SandWing queen who isn't actually one of the three sisters. It's the SandWing from the— one of the dragonets' mom, and she's a SandWing and her name is Thorn. And then in the next prophecy from the 6th book, sorry, from the 6th book, I think all the way to the 9th, no, all the way to at least like 11th book or something like that. There's another prophecy that, yeah, so there are other dragonets who go to the school that the 5 dragonets have built in the Jade Mountain. And in the 6th book, the first book in the second prophecy. So she, her name's Moon, and she is a mind reader. And there hasn't been one for centuries, maybe like 5,000 years. So And this voice kept getting stuck in her head. And it turned out that it was a legendary monster called Darkstalker. He claims that he really isn't a monster. And then I think, yeah, and at the 8th book, there is a dragon called Peril and she has firescales and she destroys a scroll that was supposed to keep Darkstalker trapped forever. And then somehow he gets free from his prison and he rises up. And according from the books that I just passed, he wanted to start a war with the Ice— with another tribe called the Icewings so he could get his revenge on something that happened 5,000 years ago.

Got it, got it. So I want to kind of wonder a little bit about the concept of prophecy. What would you say is a prophecy? What makes something into a prophecy?

Most of the prophecies that I've heard or spoken or written by someone very special, not, well, not special, but someone very chosen. And basically what prophecy, what basically examples of prophecies to me are probably just words like, maybe a couple sentences that maybe don't make sense. Not like I went— not like the usual not make sense, just like they make sense, but like they want you to do something and maybe it doesn't really make that much sense.

So this, this, um, I'll admit this sounds a little bit confusing and that's totally okay. Confusing is okay. But, um, what I'm getting, and tell me if I, if I missed something or misunderstood something, What I'm getting is that a prophecy is something by a special person that they say that kind of doesn't make sense. Is that what a prophecy is, or am I missing something?

Um, I think that's what it is because most of the prophecies that I've read in books mostly turn out to not make sense. They have double endings. Um, you can pick from one choice to the other, and it's been— and some of the prophecies that I've read in different series of books, um, have been kind of confusing.

Got it. Got it. So maybe one way that I try to understand ideas or concepts is I like to try to try those ideas out in different situations, different contexts. So I'm thinking, okay, a prophecy is something said by something special. It kind of doesn't make sense. Suppose your dad says something special or says something and he's special. Is your dad special enough to give prophecies or is he not special enough to give prophecies?

Prophecies? Maybe he would be because sometimes you have to be chosen to be a, like a, I don't know, a prophecy writer and maybe a lot of people are chosen to do that but we just don't know. And maybe books, in a book.

So maybe your dad could give prophecies. So suppose your dad's, how do you know if your dad is giving a prophecy or not? Is it only when he doesn't make sense that he's giving a prophecy, or might he be giving prophecies all day every day, or do you think maybe once a year ago he gave a prophecy? How would you know if your dad gave a prophecy?

Um, two examples that are just from books that I read is probably just acting kind of like a mummy and then smoke coming out of your mouth when you say it, and then sometimes just writing it down. And then poof, it happens.

So if your dad had smoke coming out of his ears, then maybe he's giving a prophecy?

And if he's speaking words that don't make sense, maybe.

I know the answer, but I'll go ahead and ask it just because it's fun or funny. Has your dad ever had smoke coming out of his ears?

No.

I thought it's just a funny image. Okay, so no smoke coming out of the ears. But you also say writing something down. Do you think your dad might have written something down that's a prophecy?

I've never really seen him write a prophecy down. I've seen him write a lot of stuff down, but not a prophecy, so I don't think he did that yet.

And how could you tell? I guess my question is, yeah, he writes a lot of stuff down. How do you know that maybe last week when he was writing something down How do you know? Maybe he wrote a prophecy. Is that possible?

Maybe, because I wasn't here last week.

Exactly. That's why I thought about it. You didn't even see it. So suppose your dad wrote a prophecy down last week. How would we know? Would we know like tonight or tomorrow or a year from now or 50 years from now or 1,000 years from now? How do we know?

Maybe he hid it somewhere and then I had to find it. And then when I read it and I found it, poof, it happens.

So do prophecies always happen right away? Well, yeah, what makes them happen? Why is it, why is it you would have to read it to make it happen?

Well, you don't have to read it to make it happen, but, um, for me, some, some of the prophecy that I've read of are— have two choices. So maybe if someone told you about it and maybe they read it to you or something like that, it's because if you read it, maybe you would have more sense of it, so you'd know what's gonna happen.

Okay, so I'm going to give you a concrete example. Suppose your dad wrote last week in an email, "I'm going to go to work today," and then he went to work that day. Was that a prophecy that came true?

Um, prophecies that, um, from what I've read, don't— that's not that simple. It's because most of the prophecies that I've read have to include with fighting a monster or winning a war or something like that.

I see. So in order for your dad to write a prophecy, it would have to deal with something like fighting a monster or winning a war?

Well, it wouldn't have to, but it would probably not be as simple as going to work.

Okay. So, um, okay. So what kinds of— are there— I mean, there are wars in the modern world. Um, I don't know if they're monsters. Are there monsters in the modern world?

Um, maybe. I don't know.

Okay.

I don't think so.

Okay. Um, so with no monsters, maybe it's just wars. So if, if your dad had a prophecy about a war and then, um, and then something happened related to that war, then that would be a real prophecy?

Yeah, like maybe. Yeah, like if he wrote down a prophecy and they said that a war was going to happen and it happened and he had to choose some adults or kids to stop it. I think that would probably be, I mean, that would be true because the war, because a war started and maybe the ones that he chose to save the world are here. Yeah.

Okay. I'm wondering about different possibilities for prophecy. Suppose he wrote that Alana is going to be the jiu-jitsu champion of the world. Would that mean that you would become the jiu-jitsu champion of the world? Or how does that work? Or is that not a prophecy?

I think mostly prophecies that I've read have way more than one line. And yeah, and sometimes it rhymes.

OK. So I'm not good at rhyming. There are people that are really good at rhyming off the top of your head.

I'm not. Yeah. I've never really tried.

So suppose your dad made some prediction about you that was confusing and rhyming, and you're not sure if it's going to be true or not. And could a prediction about you be a prophecy or not?

Um, like what would happen if I was in a prophecy?

I mean, is it— you said fighting monsters or going to war. I guess I'm wondering, could, could there be a prophecy about you, or is that completely impossible?

Um, maybe if mythological things that would have to do with the prophecy were real, maybe. But it doesn't have to be fighting monsters or fighting in a war. It can basically be anything, but mostly it's not that simple. Okay, like it's not as simple as someone being a champion or going to work or drinking water or anything like that.

Okay, and you use the word mythological. What's— what does mythological mean?

Um, like just like myths, like Roman myths, Greek myths. And maybe you can make up your own myths.

Okay, well, this is all very interesting. I think this is interesting stuff. What's a prophecy and what's a myth and, you know, all of these things. And I always want to keep these short, so what are you going to do today?

Today, I really don't know.

No problem. Welcome again. I know you miss Hawaii, but welcome back to the continental US, and hopefully we'll talk next weekend. Okay.