Know Jack #216 Making My Own Mistakes

 

When my oldest daughter was just old enough to begin feeding herself, a hint of her personality came immediately to light. She had a two-handled sippy cup. The cup was heavy enough that it really required both her tiny hands to hold it steady. However, she insisted on using one hand and could not be dissuaded by either admonition to use both hands or by placing both her hands on the cup.

She also loved tomatoes and would eat them until the acid in them produced violent diaper rash. Attempts to curve her appetite for them were all in vain short of tears and pleading for more. Where she got this behavior remains a mystery to me…though it persists to this day.

Sometimes we simply let her make her own mistakes. But mistakes is not the right word. These were learning experiences and she discovered how to work the cup one handed and eventually, back off on the tomatoes.

I admit that I learn slowly, however, I learn well. Needless to say, I have made plenty of mistakes on my way to learning. I still make them…remember, I learn slowly.

I think it is this insistence on making my own mistakes on the way to an education that infuriates me with modern society and its constant attempts of correct me.

Autocorrect drives me to madness and multiple mistakes in thinking what I have written is actually what appears on screen. My phone will automatically lower music levels to protect my hearing, long gone to the jet engines I work around for years. Dang it, Verizon, I need that music cranked up just to hear it.

A couple of years ago I made a mistake looking for the Medicare website, but thankfully, hundreds of Medigap companies picked up my error and flooded my email inbox with helpful offers to turn my money into insurance against illness.

Who can in “these trying times” doubt the extreme concern the CDC, governors and Congress have for my health? It is such a priority for them, they have issued mandates for the entire population to follow just so I will be well.

My Jeep requires be to “Accept” its safety features every time I start the engine. My bank provides triple layered security for anyone trying to deposit money of pay my bills. My news is filtered through corporate America and political parties to make sure it is safe for me to hear. And who among us has not experienced the great concern of companies offering extended warranties for everything we own?

Good writers know the rules of writing, then, break the rules as needed to spin an interesting tale much to the chagrin of computer writing programs. Sometimes I simply feel the need to scream, “Let me make my own mistakes!”

Maybe I should give my daughter and call and see how she’s doing.

Maranatha