Golden Line of the day
So, I am re-reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian and I found this golden line that really made me stop and think…
“The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don’t know.”
Right now, we are trapped in the smallest part of our world, our own homes. However, there are still so many things we can learn while we are here.
Sit down and talk to an elderly person in your family (face to face or on the phone) and ask them to tell you your family history. They will spill the tea for sure and maybe you’ll find out that your great grandparents were different ethnicities and got married in secret at City Hall and didn’t know what to do after the wedding so they just went home to their separate parents’ houses and lived apart until a traveling pots and pans salesman outed them and they had to tell their families and they both got kicked out of their houses and had to sleep in the car for the first month of their marriage.
Learn how to make your mom’s (or your dad’s) signature recipe. Serve it to your family for dinner tonight. I wish I had asked my dad to teach me how to make his famous lasagne before he passed away. It was the best thing I’ve ever tasted, and I would love to serve it to my daughters right now.
Take something apart and put it back together, just to see how it works. I’m going to learn how to change my own oil, inshallah.
Play a board game (or a card game) you’ve never played before. I taught my boyfriend’s son how to play Mancala and we’ve played 7 games so far today…he’s beat me 5 times already.
Go for a walk, or a run, or a bike ride, to a neighborhood you’ve never been to before. Notice the differences, but more importantly, notice the similarities. The things that separate us are not as powerful as we imagine them to be. Today I went for a run while my family rode their bikes along side me. I posted my fastest split time of the year and figured out that I don’t mind the boondocks as much as I thought I did.
You have the freedom now to explore your world, free from the constraints of school curriculum. To all of you who have ever asked a teacher “Why do we have to learn this? When are we ever going to use it in real life?”, now is your chance to decide which things you want to know that are going to benefit you. Think about all the things you’ve ever wondered about, and then start finding the answers.
If you come across a golden line in your own SSR, please post it in the comments below. I would love to know what strikes you while you’re reading.
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