Something New Every Day
Not too long ago the Sullen One came home from school in a funk, had dinner, and settled down to read on the long slide down to bed. School was “awful,” “boring,” and “useless.”
“Well,” I chirp brightly, “what did you learn today?”
He gave me the sort of scorching look reserved for idiots, which I’m getting quite a lot of with a teen in the house and the Little Princess coming up on teenhood in leaps and bounds. “Nothing,” he announces, “except that school is boring.”
“Good Christ. Come on. You must have learned something today.”
“What did you learn today?” With the air of a man who has just out-logic’d his opponent.
I promptly reeled off something about the Napoleonic War, the declination of intemperans, a story about lice infestation at the battle of Stalingrad, and some bits from the wiki on African violets. “All learned today.”
I think the word that best describes his face at the moment is “priceless.”
I firmly believe that even when stuck in the public schooling system it’s possible and desirable to learn at least one new thing per day. Not only does it insure against brain-rot induced by television, but it’s also a fun way to pick up little bits useful in writing. For example, Jack Gray in Cloud Watcher? He was given birth (most accidentally, I hope) by a passage in a book on the Templars that brought home how some of them didn’t bathe for years to show their piety. Dante Valentine has the benefit of every bit of classical literature I ever snuck in reading between classes or during boring lectures–or during long evenings when my parents insisted we all sit like moss-covered bumps in front of a blatting glass-teat telly. Kaia in Steelflower came from a National Geographic article on the Scythians. Japhrimel’s cinnamon smell, I am certain, comes from a bit I read on cinnamon incense somewhere.
See what I mean?
I think one should make a point of learning one new thing a day, preferably about a subject one wouldn’t normally think about. Wikipedia and Google are particularly good for this. If you’re reading this, you have access to a computer and the Internet, and perhaps the largest mass of information ever accumulated. Finding an odd fact or two shouldn’t be a problem.
For example, yesterday, I found out about noodling, or handfishing. (The DHM was watching a PBS documentary, right after the ones on Terry Sanford and Aimee Semple McPherson.) I found out that libraries are not only my safe place, they have become the dumping ground for mentally-ill since the days of Reagonomics. Oh, and I found out (through the Molly Ivins book I’m reading now) about Barbara Jordan, who kicked ass and took names back during Watergate.
This morning I read about Jim Butcher and how he creates martial-arts backgrounds for his characters–and sings the Mortal Kombat theme.
You see? Something new every day, and I’ve barely finished my morning coffee.
This particular morning the kids are watching a Harry Potter movie. And I realize something: I am deeply attached to Professor McGonagall. I want to be just like her when I grow up.
That is, if I ever DO grow up. Which is by no means certain.
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