“You
must unlearn what you have learnt.”
Yoda
It’s taken me a while but I needed at some
point in my Slightly Mad Dad to quote Star Wars and especially Yoda. It is my favourite Yoda quote
and one I have regularly used when starting the year as a teacher with a new
class.
However, Yoda is only my starting point
because it’s H who has given me a new version of this quote:
“You
must relearn what you have unlearnt.”
H
Is it paraphrasing, bastardising or just
giving the tails to Yoda’s heads? I don’t know the answer to that one but I
definitely know that H has made me relearn many things already this year.
What can a one year old teach an adult? Not
much about anything of worldly value you would think and that’s probably true.
However, he’s taught me to relearn finding great joy in the simplest of things.
Things I had unlearned as being interesting or amazing.
I watch H when a plane flies over our house
and he gets so excited. It’s just a plane but how many questions are there
about planes that you could ask? How does it fly? Who thought of the idea of
flying? These are some quick questions that pop into my head because I think
maybe in all his excitement that’s what he’s thinking.
Each morning I make myself a piccolo late
at home. It’s a morning routine but one which H finds fascinating. As soon as
he hears me near the coffee machine he is climbing my leg wanting to watch. I
tamp the beans and he “Ooooohhhhhhhs,” and I ask where did these come from,
what has happened to them to get here, what’s their story? Yet when I froth the
milk the “Oooooohhhhhhh,” becomes a roared “AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH,” and the arms
pump in excitement. It makes me think of the science of heat being applied to
the milk and what’s happening as the molecules are heated. A simple everyday task sparks so much curiosity and so many questions.
These are such humble things and they’re
not the only ones that get him excited. Seeing a fan spin, or a truck drive by
or the joy on his face when he sees his Mum come from work. All these things
are simple but they provide so much joy, curiosity and wonder to one so little.
By following his lead and relearning to find so much joy, curiosity and wonder
in the small things around me I’ve joined H in getting excited about the interesting and amazing in my everyday.
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