“Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder 'why, why, why?'
Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle
THERE ARE AN AWFUL LOT OF THINGS that are well beyond my learning curve. In school I discovered, painfully, that I was neither a math nor a science person. My brain was just not constituted to process stuff like trigonometry and physics. There went my major in architectural engineering. Then there are those uninspiring subject areas like accounting and economics that caused me to shift uncomfortably in my seat and stare out the window. There went my major in accounting. I was not inspired. But then, I found myself in a lit course. That got my cranial juices flowing. No matter that majoring in English was impractical. I felt that I was in my element, that I had found my academic niche, so to speak. It was the perfect area of study for a guy who totally lacked marketable talents or capitalistic ambitions. I’ve never been sorry, notwithstanding that, even today, any kind of DIY project would likely be too much for my limited manual capabilities. I outdid myself back in the Eighties when I hung ceiling fans in both my daughters’ bedrooms. They afterward lived in dire fear of decapitation. But I read to them too, and one of them later majored in English, just like both of her parents. Now I am waiting to see where my granddaughter ends up. She’s off to a good start. She’s in the fifth grade and already needs more bookshelves.
