I have just received a charming video clip of our granddaughter, aged nearly 2, demonstrating how we all try to make sense of things, but unless someone with more experience than us can provide a fuller explanation, often we continue bumbling along doing what we think is the correct thing, but we are so way off mark that it seems a shame to attempt to correct it.

My example is an understanding of the concept of a pocket.  Isadora has seen people put things in pockets, but pockets are mysterious internal things. You see things disappear into them, but you do not necessarily see the actual pocket itself, unless it is patched on to the outside of your clothing.

Issa wants to put some things into her pocket in order to transport them to another room.  The objects of her avarice are a collection of hairbands, clips, bows and headscarves. The problem is that she is wearing dungarees and they do not sport a pocket.  Undeterred, she starts to stuff the geegaws into where a pocket might be if there was one.  This only succeeds in shoving things down her right trouser leg.  The dungarees are roomy and a surprising amount of objects can be accommodated. She continues to stuff her trouser leg until her dungarees have ballooned like a cartoon character.  She then totters across the room to the kitchen with the precious cargo despite the fact that her mother is laughing so hard that she is beyond speech.

Desirable objects have been picked up, put into a "pocket" and moved as intended.  What is so funny about that? Then, like a magician, long streams of scarves and bows can be retrieved from the "pocket" until the trouser leg is restored to its normal size.

Over the past few years, I have frequently tried to do things without a proper understanding of the concept that I am exploring.  I am guilty of the equivalent to "let me stuff all that I can into my pocket syndrome". Sometimes people help me to clear up the misunderstanding, but sometimes they are not aware that there is a fundamental misunderstanding that needs explaining. And probably sometimes people are laughing just as hard as the grown-ups watching Issa, but they are too polite to do it out loud.  Like the mysterious non-existent pocket, it is hidden inside.