Learning

Sara-Jane came over yesterday afternoon, to spend the night with us. I was making Buttermilk Rusks, something I do once a month, and she was chatting and helping as they were made. After that we made a (delicious) mushroom tart from a recipe in Taste magazine. She wasn't being taught but a lot of it will have rubbed off on to her. Rather like the young man in Slumdog Milionaire we absorb so much knowledge that we may not be aware of until it's needed.

I, for instance, know how to pluck a chicken. I live in hope that I'll never have to do the dirty deed but, from watching my Gran doing it when I was a child, I know how. I'm fussy about mashed potatoes because I remember my mum's and try do do the same. It's a kind of legacy I suppose and also how we evolve.

I rather enjoy doing laundry, I'm a tad fussy about it and I know that a lot of my attention to the task came from Rowland's Ouma. When she came to stay with his folks I would watch in amazement as she marshalled the troups to catch every last bit of sunshine in the small garden. Moving a shirt here, a towel there.

It just soaks in, this knowhow and it's why we have to be careful what we pass on.

My dad didn't swear (that I know of). When he was really angry he said "Damn it all"and I don't recall hearing anything else. I rarely swear, I have two words reserved for ghastly occassions, neither one would be banned in a movie, or beeped out. Had he been a cusser of note well, things may have been more colourful.

So we evolve, tasks becoming commonplace without being taught, to make place for new abilities. Young boys observe their dad's every move, how often they walk in the same way or have the same mannerisms. Girls may take up a hobby their mother has because deep down they know that half the learning has been done and they just have to fine hone the rest.
Some times we may surprise ourselves by discovering things didn't realise we already knew. I think it makes life interesting, there's always something new waiting for us to soak in, just try to recognise the good and ignore the rest.