Thoughts while Traveling
4.30.2004
Today I witnessed a woman say to her young son "Dammit boy, you ask too many questions!"
It made me want to cry.
How can you say that? Honestly, if you've only been around for three or four years, you aren't going to have a great deal of knowledge about things. How else is he going to learn? What child learns solely by observation? It just made me very grateful that I grew up in an environment where I could ask questions. I can't imagine what I would've missed out on had I not. Every time my dad and I went anywhere I would ask him things I wanted to know about. 8, 10, 12 years old- I wanted to know about vietnam, rock-n-roll, james brown, english history, civil war history, civil rights movement, world war II, baseball, abraham lincoln, shakespeare, shotguns, santa claus, cars, family history, the american revolution, other countries, assassinated presidents, watergate, the bible, inter-racial marriages, guitar legends, poisoned tree frogs... everything. One of our favourite games was 20 questions. Dad would always pick someone I didn't know, but I learned 20 things about them (even if two of those facts were just simple things like that the subject is dead and male- at least I wasn't running around wondering why that lady named Teddy Roosevelt was never in the news).
I treasure those times. And those weren't the only instances- I was never discouraged from asking questions an dmy life has been better for it.
Seeing what I saw this morning makes me want to have a child. (Don't worry sweets, not right away) I want our child to always ask questions. And if I don't know the answer... I'll just make something up.
Oddly enough, the woman asked me a few questions. You have no idea how hard it was not to say "Dammit lady, you ask too many questions."
It made me want to cry.
How can you say that? Honestly, if you've only been around for three or four years, you aren't going to have a great deal of knowledge about things. How else is he going to learn? What child learns solely by observation? It just made me very grateful that I grew up in an environment where I could ask questions. I can't imagine what I would've missed out on had I not. Every time my dad and I went anywhere I would ask him things I wanted to know about. 8, 10, 12 years old- I wanted to know about vietnam, rock-n-roll, james brown, english history, civil war history, civil rights movement, world war II, baseball, abraham lincoln, shakespeare, shotguns, santa claus, cars, family history, the american revolution, other countries, assassinated presidents, watergate, the bible, inter-racial marriages, guitar legends, poisoned tree frogs... everything. One of our favourite games was 20 questions. Dad would always pick someone I didn't know, but I learned 20 things about them (even if two of those facts were just simple things like that the subject is dead and male- at least I wasn't running around wondering why that lady named Teddy Roosevelt was never in the news).
I treasure those times. And those weren't the only instances- I was never discouraged from asking questions an dmy life has been better for it.
Seeing what I saw this morning makes me want to have a child. (Don't worry sweets, not right away) I want our child to always ask questions. And if I don't know the answer... I'll just make something up.
Oddly enough, the woman asked me a few questions. You have no idea how hard it was not to say "Dammit lady, you ask too many questions."
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