“So, people who have houses and stuff sometimes have a mail box, but if you get a lot of mail because you are doing a lot of stuff with a lot of people, then maybe a mail slot is better because there's more room behind it, until you fill up your house with mail and stuff.”
Seven-year-old Amanda Ludlow was talking about neighborhood design with her brothers six-year-old Grayson and five-year-old Lil' Robert, who were working on some Lego houses. Amanda did her best to be a good big sister to and help them understand the world, and Mrs. Maggie Lee their big cousin just got a seat and sat down, because falling over from laughing at these little geniuses transcending and yet not escaping the limitations of their extreme youth was a clear and present danger.
“So, we're going to need more blue paper for these blueprints,” Grayson said.
“Yeah, because, see, now we gotta build a drive-through,” Lil' Robert said, “because, see, the mail box is by the street, but now they gotta drive up to the houses.”
“What if we put the mail slot in the garage, though?” Amanda said.
“That could work,” Grayson said, “but then, where are people going to put their cars?”
“Yeah, because, see, junk mail is real bad!” Lil' Robert said. “I heard Papa say he is so tired of these mailmen and mountains of junk mail, and mountains are kinda big to have inside your house.”
“Well, yes, but also, no,” Grayson said, “because we always build mountains the right size for the house.”
“But we're smarter than people who send junk mail, because, see, we actually love us who live here!” Lil' Robert said.
“That's true,” Grayson said. “Love makes you smarter.”
“It really does!” Amanda said.
“I have an idea,” Grayson said. “We don't need to build a bigger mail box. We need to build a boomerang to send the junk back.”
Amanda and Lil' Robert thought about this, and then smiled as what they thought was the light dawned on them.
“Yeah!” they both said.
“You get junk mail, you throw it right back at them!” Lil' Robert said.
“Why didn't anybody think about this before?” Amanda said.
“Like I said,” Grayson said as he passed out blue construction paper to his siblings, “love makes you smarter.”
“Yeah!” Lil' Robert and Amanda said.
“Well, they're not wrong about the last part!” Col. H.F. Lee said when he heard about it from his giggling wife. “At their wee ages, they have wisdom, even if the mechanics are not quite there yet!”
“You are the reigning Lee prince of understatement – how you hear these things and come up with that kind of answer just tickles me even more!”
“Well, Maggie, it's like Grayson said: love makes you smarter.”