the idea that time went fast when you got old was beyond the ability of banning 's emotion to understand , but he was a bright enough boy who could already do a little algebra , although he did n't know that was what it was called -- -a boy who understood the basic fact of the word equation without knowing he understood : in a world where men and women are made grave by thoughts of graves upon which only words are graven , gravity demands that if one end of a seesaw goes up , the other must go down .