I’ve sometimes wondered if it’s a blessing or a curse to be one of those child geniuses. I have a pretty good perception of the good and bad of being a non-genius.

Now I’m not talking about a savant. I’m talking about a 10-year-old college sophomore who this week is cramming for his final exams. Moshe Kai Cavalin’s feet don’t even touch the floor when he’s sitting at his desk, but he’s studying statistics, brushing up on his Chinese and Mandarin and talking to grown-up scientists about black holes and worm holes. He’s an Asian living in California, and if his grades hold up, he’s going to transfer to a major university where he will study astrophysics. Oh by the way, he also has to practice his piano when he gets through calculating some astronomy coordinates.

My first thought was that this kid is going to miss out on so much in life because he won’t be able to relate to boy stuff. Kids need to be kids for a while because at some point the world gets much more complex and serious as adults start wars, pollute the air and pump steroids. But then I read on he likes Jackie Chan movies, collects toy cars and baseball caps, and he enjoys playing soccer. And just recently he broke his arm practicing martial arts. In a different time, he might have even liked skinny dipping and corn cob wars.

Certainly this must be a tremendous exception to the genius venue. This kid can calculate your body fat index at a glance and then kick your butt if you sass him about the results.

I’ve never personally known any kid geniuses. There were none among the guys I ran with. There were some smarter than others but no geniuses. What I mean is, we all knew to watch out for that strand of barbed wire when we climbed the hog-wire fence, but none of us could point out Orion in the night sky. I made reasonably good grades in school, and I knew that gene therapy had nothing to do with what kind of detergent my mom used on my Levi’s. But even today, I have no idea about black holes and worm holes — at least not in regards to the study of stars and all those spaces in between. To me, black holes are where a lot of our tax monies go. And worm holes are where the politicians hide after they’ve tossed that money in those black holes.

His teachers say that actually, Moshe views things very simply, seeing through complexities.

Now I also view some things very simply. For instance, I didn’t major in economics, but I know in business that when it comes to figuring profit margins that the “add-em ups” better be more than the “take’em aways.” And I don’t need to refer to a federal study that tells me if a kid sits around on the sofa all day playing video games that he eventually could become as wide as he is tall.

Sometimes we hear about geniuses who can’t tie their shoes. Moshe may actually be a “well-rounded” genius. Not only can he figure 10 digit square roots in his head, but he also knows not to spread the picnic blanket on a fire ant bed. If a guy like that were to be elected to Congress when he grows up, he might even be able to perpetuate a concept that the “add-em ups” must be greater than the “take’em aways.”

You go Moshe!

(Dwain Walden is editor/publisher of The Moultrie Observer, 985-4545. E-mail: dwain.walden@gaflnews.com)