"Ball," he said, and he gestured to the heavens. I looked where my little boy was pointing and saw a full moon hanging high in the winter sky. "That's right, you brilliant boy," I said. "It is a ball. The moon is a great big ball."

He didn't know more than four or five words at the time: Mama. Daddy. Ball. Dog. Plane. What a remarkable thing--to have words only for one's favorite things in the world.

"The moon is a ball," I told my boy, "and so is the earth we're standing on. This whole world is one big ball set spinning in the universe."

He smiled at me. It was not a smile of comprehension, but of contentment. To me it seemed to say, "Of course this whole world is a ball! And why shouldn't it be? It's a great ball where dogs trot and planes soar overhead and my mama loves me and my daddy holds me in the cold night and tells me what I suspected all along: that the moon is a ball, and the world is too."