I just put my 3.5-year old son to bed. We have a long bedtime routine (3 books; a Pokemon story that I make up and tell him -- tonight, about Eevee, Growlithe, and Machamp getting lost in an airport waiting on a 787 to take them to Antarctica along with Ash, Max, Brock, and May; two rounds of *Twinkle Twinkle Little Star*, ...). Tonight, we added to that routine. We took a wooden alphabet set and did some math ("You have 3 letters here, and 5 letters here... put them together, how many letters? Take 4 away, and how many are there?"). He loves this. His little brain lights up, and that light shines from his eyes and smile and the little giggles as he counts the letters. He's doing something hard -- it's pushing him, and he enjoys it. Then, we did some spelling. His name, mommy, daddy, his sister, his friends from ~~daycare~~ school. We talked about how some words have multiple of the same letter, and so when we only have one set of letters, we can't spell them perfectly (we settled on letters quickly "jumping" back and forth, pulling double duty). Again -- giggles, smiles, happiness. It's challenging, there are pauses to sound out letters, and he has to think. As we end it, he lays back in bed. There's some satisfaction. He's proud of himself. I can't help but smile as I watch him. I'm proud of him. For being able to do this, yes, but also for finding joy in this. He's so damn smart, wise. As I say my final "goodnight", I tell my son something about how using your brain and thinking hard is good. I've been putting this kid to bed for 45 minutes -- my vocab is limited. It's not a deep thought, and it's not phrased well. But as I close the door, I realize that I mean it. There are a million reasons today that I could see that as naive. I could be cynical, I could be depressed, I could be skeptical. Parts of me, even as I write this, feel the pull towards this. But I've just witnessed first hand the spark of Human Intellect in a young mind. It's hard to not be optimistic in that moment, and perhaps a little naivety is simply human.