How We Know Things

 There was once a little boy who knew he was the most beautiful child in the world. He had heard this many times, and so had no doubts on the subject. 

    One day, he met a little girl.

    'I am the most beautiful child in the whole world,' he said, as a matter of course.

    He was quite surprised to find that the little girl did not agree with him.

    'This is not true,' she said. 'I am the most beautiful child in the whole world.'

    She, too, said it as a matter of course, because she had also been told that she was the most beautiful.

    In their confusion, the two children shared why it was that they each believed they were the most beautiful. As they shared, a suspicion began to grow in their minds. And so they sought a third child, who also knew themselves to be the most beautiful child in the whole world. Yet more stories were shared and the children came to a conclusion: all children were the most beautiful in the world.  

    They knew that this was true because their guts told them—which is, of course, how we all know things, if only we have the right minds for listening.

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