Why is a Mountain Called a Mountain

It’s a tropical summer day in Far North Queensland and Sarah, with her two boys were just leaving Mission Beach for the two hour drive to the city of Cairns, looking forward to a fun day out and to watch a movie, before finally returning home to Mission Beach.

This is a drive they’d completed a hundred times so the boys were familiar with the surrounding landscape, resulting in a boring two hour ride. Mum would play different word games to keep them amused, such as ‘I Spy’ and ‘Who Am I’.

However, after about an hour the boredom was setting in and the boys began to argue amongst themselves. Mum tried to point out things of interest in an endeavour to stop the fighting and she was mostly successful.

“Look boys, do you remember that large mountain?” Mum asks.

Simon, who was seven years of age, stops hitting his five year old brother, Jason and glances out of the window at the mountain Mum is pointing at.

“Why is it called a mountain, Mum?” Simon asks.

Mum gives the question some thought before replying. “Because it was named after the man that discovered it.”

“But why,” Jason pipes up, joining in the conversation.

“Because he did all the hard work and discovered the first mountain,” Mum explains.

“But why is it called a mountain,” Simon persists in questioning.

Mum knows they’ll never give up asking, at least not until they have received an answer that satisfies their curiosity, so she explains. “The first man to discover a mountain was Mr Mountain and therefore the mountain was named after this man, to reward him for all his hard work.”

Both boys ponder this explanation and nod their heads in agreement. Yes, it seems to make sense to them and the topic of conversation is changed.

Mum breathes a sigh of relief because she knows from experience that they’ll keep asking ‘why’ until she comes up with some creative explanation.

Soon after this question session, the city of Cairns appears on the horizon. Ten minutes later Mum parks the car at Central Shopping Centre.

“Boys, we’ll head to the food court and grab some lunch before we go to the movies. What do you feel like eating?”

The immediate response was an excited “McDonald’s,” with both boys shouting the answer at the same time.

So McDonald’s it is.

Mum places their order and asks Simon to collect some knives and forks from the cutlery bar, along with some paper napkins.

As they sit down with their food Simon asks, “Why is a fork called a fork?”

Without giving it much thought, Mum responds. “A fork is named after the man that first invented it.”

“But why,” pipes up Jason.

“Because his name was Mr Fork and he became famous by inventing something to eat with. Everyone agreed it should be named after the man that invented it,” Mum explains.

“Oh, that makes sense,” Simon states. “Is a knife called a knife because Mr Knife invented it?”

“Yes, Simon that’s exactly why a knife is called a knife. Well done,” Mum praises.

Silently she knew she had skipped a bullet and temporarily stopped the annoying ‘why’ questions over why things were named as they were named.

It was due to Mum’s creativity that the family’s most memorable myth came into play, that was until Simon and Jason grew into teenagers and began to question whether those answers Mum had given them all those years ago, where actually fact or fiction.

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Originally published on Medium