One of the best-selling books at your local store right now is the philosophical essay titled, On Bullshit. Philosophy is HOT right now, as are the philosophers who are philosophizing. That leads me to five year old Shruti Indiresan from the Bay Area. The SJ Mercury reports (thanks for the tip Runnerwallah):
Shruti Indiresan has been surprising people all of her life.
As a toddler she buzzed through books and slapped together puzzles developed for much older children. Today, at 5, the kindergartner at Faria Elementary School in Cupertino reads and writes at a fourth-grade level.
Shruti’s latest stunner: winning the Most Philosophical Kindergartner in America title with the essay she composed for the third Kids Philosophy Slam. Several thousand students across the country in kindergarten through 12th grade submitted essays on which is more important in their lives: truth or beauty.
“I feel happy when I am telling the truth,” Shruti wrote in her essay. “I become beautiful when I am truthful.”
Her mother was a bit baffled.
“She’s very fond of princesses,” Rohini Indiresan said. “So I figured she would choose beauty.”
So what was Shruti’s winning essay? Behold:
Truth means not telling a lie. It is good to tell the truth. You are telling the egzact thing that you did. I feel happy when I am telling the truth. I become beautiful when I am truthful. Beauty comes from your good behavior. You can find out you are telling the truth by the size of your nose. Truth means to me good behavior. Because truth is the only way adults will be proud of you. Everyone will like me.
That’s deep. There was even a hat tip to the great philosopher Carlo Collodi that she embedded within her treatise. Did anyone else catch it? So is Shruti a total bookworm then?
Shruti wears glasses and is a deep thinker. She can’t put down Time magazine and has engaged her parents in thoughtful discussions about the Asian tsunami and the Terri Schiavo case.
But a bookworm she’s not. Her parents don’t impose strict study routines. They indulge her love of drawing — usually self-portraits featuring flowing gowns and waist-length tresses. They allow her some TV and computer time limited to kids’ sites, “where I get to choose what to play,” Shruti says while maneuvering a mouse as if she was born with one in her hand.
Mostly, the girl loves a good twirl.
“Everybody just loves seeing her spin around,” Luttrull said.
Ahhh. Of course. Those that are Mevlevi at heart are always philosophical and spinning in search of truth.
