On some things I pride myself on being informed. On other things, I would much prefer to be ignorant. There is only so much brain bandwidth and time in the day and there are just things I intentionally don't want to know about.
Let me start with the weather as this is something my opinion has changed in the past year. In general, I don't worry too much what the weather is. I don't stand outside in the rain if it's raining and I'm usually going from a car to a building so dressing in season-appropriate clothing is something I would do without checking the weather first.
But now I have children. It is my responsibility to send them to school in something that is warm enough for the weather of the day. They play outside every day (baring bad weather) so dressing them in appropriate clothing and outer wear is one of those parent responsibilities. And that means you need to know what the temperature will be when you leave for school and what it's going to get to by the time they go outside several hours later. Right now during the change of seasons that means I look at the hourly temperature forecast and make a decision just before dressing them.
At some point I hear they learn to dress themselves. Won't that be a joy?
The other thing I intentionally avoid is the news. I grew up with my parents always watching the nightly news after dinner. They read the newspaper and they are well-informed about local and national news events. But it always seemed like robberies, stabbings, wars, explosions and people who died. Sure, there were special interest stories but they didn't pertain to me and I wasn't particularly interested.
I read a parenting book for our parents book club this past month that gave a statistic on news broadcasts. A typical news broadcast is thirty-one percent commercials and fifty-eight percent violence/war/crime stories. With figures like that (and my personal dislike for commercials) I don't mind that I'm missing the news.
Sometimes it catches me off guard though. For example, I didn't know about the Oklahoma City bombing for six hours after it happened because I was working quietly at my home office. Just recently with the Boston Marathon explosions, I found out via a voice mail my running buddy left me because I didn't have the television on. I commonly find out notable people have died when I overhear other people's conversations.
But all in all, I don't particularly mind being out of touch with things like this. There is a lot of cruelty and suffering in the world. I think focusing on it would, for me, take it's toll. So in that case, I think my ignorance does relieve me. I believe I'm happier not knowing some things.
And make note, this is not a recommendation on how others should spend their time. My husband is an avid news reader. In general, I find out more news from him than anyone else. He makes sure to keep me updated when something happens that he knows I should be aware of. Thanks, Daddy.
The Big Boy Update: Busy times. He went to see Mimi the other day to spend the morning and when I arrived to pick him up he proudly showed me his, "Salad" he had made from weeds, grasses and ferns in the yard. I have such fun memories of making a pretend salad from my childhood. And about that visit. Apparently he got tired and told Mimi, "I want to go home." She called me and asked him to say it again and sure enough, he told me, "Mommy, I want to go home." So off I went to get him. This one makes us laugh a lot. I have a specific bottle of coconut soda water I frequently drink. He wanted to try it one day and Daddy labeled it, "Tickley Water." Now, whenever he sees me with one of those bottles he says, "I want ticklewee water."
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Outgoing with a touch of shy. She's usually very friendly. For the most part she'll say hello to people and they can even pick her up and hold her. But on occasion I see her have a little shy streak. Last night when there were lots of new people in the street after dinner in our neighborhood she did the "hide behind mommy's legs and peek out" thing that's so cute. But she came around shortly and played with all the new children.
Fitness Update: Back to the gym this morning and Don had us running some circuit work. At the end he had us do an exercise my husband had done yesterday that he had told me was very tough to get through. Don said, "Yeah, it's a finisher." I felt finished afterwards.
Someone Once Said: Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.
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