What I know, which is not What I learned

So, due to limits of brain function, time, funds, and other limited resources, we, as humans, don't know everything about everything there is to know on the planet. That's just the way it is. We have to pick and choose what we care about, what we learn about, what facts we hold on to and which just roll off of us like water of some damn duck's stupid back. This frequently frustrates me when I realize that there is something cool that I want to do but can't seem to find the time to learn given that I already have a list 17 items long of things I want to do/learn/be when I grow up. That being said, we each have areas of our lives where there are large gaps in our knowledge. Some people are fabulous repositories of trivia and know a little about a lot. I'm like that. I recently learned an easy way to explain the difference between Brittain, the UK and England, in case you're curious*. Some people know a lot about certain areas--like my friend Bill can explain why soap works. Ok, none of this is revelatory or new, but I'm getting to a point, I think. We are ignorant of some stuff, either willfully or accidentally. I think that's the point I was getting at 200 words ago.

I am accidentally ignorant of the number and kinds of agricultural climates on the Asian continent, among a startling large number of other things. I am willfully ignorant of most things pertaining to sports. It's not because I'm of the gender with mostly internal plumbing. Of the few close friends of mine who are fans of sports, half of them are women, and the most fanatic half too. So, it's not a boy vs. girl thing. It's a uncoordinated, non-competitive person vs. other people thing. I know some of the basic rules of the major sports that are around and advertized on my radio. I know how things are scored in football, basketball and baseball. I think I even understand what an inning is, but I'm totally lost when it comes to soccer. I'm willfully ignorant, as I've had it explained to me before, I just don't retain the information. I also watched a four hour movie explaining Cricket and still only have the foggiest idea of how that works--you have to run a lot while other people throw stuff... that's what I got.

So, from sports, we go to games in general. I do not know the rules to most of the games that I enjoy playing. I know that makes no sense, but if you go back to yesterday's revelation about favorites and strategy, it does make sense. I know how to play lots of games, but I sort of bend the rules a bit in my brain to make them more fun. Like Scrabble. If you're playing Scrabble with the sole intent of getting the highest score and stumping your opponent, you might stick to rules like no proper names or words in other languages. I think that makes things significantly less fun. If, instead, you play to see what kinds of words you can make on the board, with bonus points being awarded for ingenuity, creativity, flair, and sheer determination--well, that's a lot more fun. There is certainly more laughing, more animation and less consultation of Mirriam Webster. MBFJC and I once spent an afternoon in Hawaii doing that. I was sunburned from the nape of my neck to my Achilles tendon from the previous day's snorkeling adventure, despite the repeated application of sunscreen and the fact that I was wearing a shirt over my bathing suit... anyway, walking was painful, so while my parents went on a hike over beautiful and senic terrain, we lay about the condo room eating Cap'n Crunch (with Crunch Berries) and giggling hysterically over the various and sundry words we managed to come up with. It might have been the best day of that vacation actually...

Anyway, the Cap'n Crunch thing is what brought all this crazy tangential thinking about. Tomorrow is the first Saturday after Faire... the first Saturday in 13 weeks that I don't have to be awake and getting ready at 6:15. That's a beautiful thing. Several years ago, my friend Shannon shared with me her Sacred Saturday tradition--Cap'n Crunch with Crunch Berries. The first Saturday of rest, she made sure to have that cereal on hand, and spent the day in her house, doing house-type relaxing things. I'm sure she puttered in her garden and tended to her fur-babies and maybe watched a Jane Austen movie... who knows. The point is that relaxation had a ritual that signified the begining of the next stage of things in our lives. For me, the cereal of choice is Cocoa Puffs, because that's the cereal my grandma always made sure to have for me at her house when I came to visit.

So, while I remain ignorant of many things agricultural and athletic, I will venture to the grocery store after work and procure my box of cereal for tomorrow morning. I shall eat cereal on the couch, with my cats, and rest.

*It's like a Venn diagram, actually