You know, it’s interesting. Children learn
much more, far more quickly than adults. Do you know why that is?”
Elizabeth assumed there was some scientific explanation for it, but
shook her head.
“Because they’re open-minded. Because they want to know and they
want to learn. Adults”—he shook his head sadly—“think they know it all.
They grow up and forget so easily instead of opening their minds, they choose
what to believe and what not to believe. You can’t make a choice on things like
that, you either believe or you don’t. That’s why their learning is slower. They
are more cynical, they lose faith, and they only demand to know things that
will help them get by day by day. They’ve no interest in the extras. But, Elizabeth,”
he said, his voice a loud whisper, eyes wide and sparkling, and Elizabeth
shivered as goose pimples rose on her arms. She felt as if he were sharing
the world’s greatest secret with her.
“It’s the extras that make life.”
“That make life what?” she whispered.
He smiled. “That make life.”
Elizabeth swallowed the lump in her throat. “That’s it?”
Ivan smiled. “What do you mean, that’s it? How much more can you
get than life, how much more can you ask for than life? That’s the gift. Life
is everything, and you haven’t lived it properly until you believe.
