#46 - An Expanse of Chocolate Chips

Things My Kids Like; Everything Smells!; Popular and Proud

Hello, my friends,

I don’t know if other kids do this, but ours have memories that astound me. Perhaps what they remember now will not remain for years, but at ages 2 and 4, even a year seems like a very long time. On Wednesday evening, before his bath Michael (4) asked, apropos of nothing, if I remembered the time the electricity got turned off and we got under a blanket together and made up stories. Sure, I said, one was about a boy who learned to ice skate. Yes, and the T-Rex! He answered. My story was from the second time we made it dark and told stories, the tale he brought up was from the first — when the electricity actually got turned off. To be sure, both were beautiful and memorable evenings, but they happened nearly a year, or 25% of his life, ago! All of this is to say that I’m touched that he so fondly recalls something we’ve done together. Maybe luck will be on our side and the power will, for a short time, go out again on some nearby evening.

“The Gate of Memory” (1864) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Things My Kids Like

In a few earlier issues of HMF I had sections just listing stuff that my kids were doing. Well, they change so quickly that it’s probably a good time to share some stuff they like now:

• Michael loves watching the shows Wild Kratts, Mini Force, Santiago of the Seas, Spirit Rangers, Power Rangers, Pokémon (the original cartoons) and movies Jungle Book (the new live-action one), Toy Story 2, Latte and the Magic Waterstone (a recent favorite), Ponyo, and maybe a few others. He’s watched a few other Studio Ghibli movies as well.

• Sophie got a backpack for Christmas and she loves taking it places with her, even though it’s empty. Yesterday, she stuff Ashley’s cell phone in there and took it to school much to her parent’s (who sought the device in vain) chagrin.

• Michael is a big fan of jigsaw puzzles. He just finished a 100 piece under-the-sea scene. Though Michael is a very active kid generally, he is really good at focusing on puzzles.

• I usually read to Sophie before she goes to bed, switching out the books every few days. There are books some books that make more frequent appearances based on her responses. A few of her top choices include Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, Little Boat by Taro Gomi, JJ’s Potty Time by Scarlett Wing (this one has sound effects which adds to its appeal), and Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert.

• Michael’s current favorite song is “Down by the Bay” by Raffi, who we’re going to see in February! He has mentioned several times how much he hopes Raffi will play that song during the concert. Are you listening, Raffi??

• Sophie loves being fancy. To be fair, both kids like being fancy, but Sophie is particularly opinionated about which clothes and shoes she likes. Hmm, though I guess at two she’s opinionated about everything. *shrug*

• Michael has animal favorites: Thorny Devils, Komodo Dragons, scorpions, tarantulas, tigers, snakes (especially cobras), crocodiles and alligators, marine life in general and, of course, dinosaurs. He seems to be a particular fan of venomous beasts.

• Sophie loves dogs in theory, but when it comes to actually interacting with them, she’s still a little bit intimidated by their size and excitement. She likes cats, too, but has had few direct opportunities to engage.

• Michael really likes to fight. Wrestling, pretending to have super powers, sumo, MMA, are all acceptable. He has lots of fun getting rowdy.

There is more that they like, naturally, but I think this list is satisfactory for the moment. Everyone says that this age passes much too quickly and putting a list like this together encapsulates a time period that will surely make my future self emotional. Future being like six months from meow.

A Thorny Devil! Image Credit: (cc) Christopher Watson via Wikimedia Commons

Everything Smells!

As a child, I once told my mom that I wanted to be hairdresser. She responded that I probably wouldn’t like all the smells. Which may be true but is still a strange response. Nevertheless, I accepted it at the time which is truly a boon for the hair of the world since I can’t cut straight. But smells, yes, they’re everywhere. Have you noticed that?

I’m reminded of this every few months when I realize that I am unconsciously suppressing my sense of smell as if to protect my brain from the onslaught of fragrance that is literally all around us. It’s something akin to the way our brain will turn down a very noisy cafeteria once we’ve been there for a few minutes so we can pay attention to a conversation. Conversely, we can turn the noise back up by returning attention to our surroundings. We can also reunite with our sense of smell!

Have you smelled a wall lately? How about your keyboard? I smell my coffee all the time, but I haven’t smelled a cup lately. Have you? The smell of our romantic partners is very important to our sense of comfort and security (can you really be with someone if you don’t like how they smell?). The smell of family members is probably the smell we most often consciously inhale, aside from food.

There isn’t a point to this olfactory ramble other than to encourage you to open your nose and breath in something unusual today. If you’re a writer, or just want a funky exercise. Take a whiff of a random object (like your steering wheel) and attempt to describe the scent in a paragraph. If you do it, please share your results with me. I would be absolutely tickled to record myself doing a dramatic reading of scent descriptions for our collective amusement.

“The Cow with the Subtle Nose” (1954) by Jean Dubuffet

Popular and Proud

The first book I read this year was What you are looking for is in the library by Michiko Ayoyama, an “international bestseller” in which each chapter follows a different person living in the same Tokyo neighborhood, with each character somehow deficient in their lives until they stop by a small library branch inside a community center and get a custom booklist and “bonus gift” that conveniently changes their lives. Admitting to liking this book would completely shatter my “brand” as a literary type of guy. I mean, come on, the characters are simplistic, the dialogue is interchangeable, and the plots are predictable. The book is highly inoffensive, completely forgettable, and too contrived for comfort. Plus, it is designed to appeal to a wide swath of people. I’m a man of taste, discretion…No, I can’t have liked this book.

And while, yes, I rated it 2/4 stars in my “books read” spreadsheet, it would be untrue to say I didn’t find pleasure in reading it. On the contrary, it gave me three days of satisfaction. Approaching this kind of light, popular fiction without life-changing expectations was key. 2023 had just ended and I was between books. What kind of book is a better palate cleanser than one like What you are looking for is in the library? Feel-good endings in every chapter and a library as central to the story? What better way to temporarily escape confusing, violent headlines than with a cozy novel that makes you feel like you just did a trust fall into a swimming pool of stuffed animals?

The literati decry popular fiction, but I disagree. While I don’t read them often, simple novels that deliver thoughtless and easy contentment have their place. Not everyone derives pleasure from reading deeply or being faced with intense characters or plots and that’s okay, isn’t it? For those desirous of wrenching stories or ones that require study and multiple readings to decode, there are plenty. For instance, I just began Ways of Worldmaking by Nelson Goodman, a philosophy book that many cited when I was delving into narratology like a decade ago. I don’t read a lot of philosophy these days so this is already a tough one and that’s fine, too. Different titles serve different purposes. Hopefully, after this one I’ll have some concept of Goodman’s ideas of “world versions” and “irrealism.”

“Creation of the world or microcosm” by Remedios Varo