Joan Didion was bored. She was four or five. She was bothering her mother. She was asking for something to do.

Her mother could have sent her away. Told her to stop. Told her to figure it out for herself. Instead, she went over to a drawer and pulled out a notebook. Here, she said, if you’re bored “then write something. Then you can read it.” The little girl was taken aback. “I had just learned to read,” she later explained, “so this was a thrilling kind of moment. The idea that I could write something–and then read it!”

Anyone who has read and loved The Year of Magical Thinking or Slouching Towards Bethlehem or any of Didion’s beautiful novels should be grateful for this moment. Every parent should learn from it too. Kids don’t always understand that they have the tools to fix their problems–they don’t fully realize the latent capacities inside them. Our job, as we have said many times here, is to help them become who they are. We have to help them take their energy, their frustrations and channel them into positive, productive avenues.

This will not only change their lives…it may well change the world.