I was re-reading A.S. Byatt's "Possession" and finding myself back at the point where she discusses how difficult it is to describe the pleasures of reading, the escape into other places, lives and experiences. Snatches of my current reading enable me to deal with hour upon hour of arbitrating disputes regarding whether its Mickey or Minnie Mouse's birthday today. And on a more immediate level is the pleasure of the language and of words. The importance of words is often overlooked as we text more and write less, all of us speak a sort of quick shorthand shorn of reflection. But now that I spend most of my time with two humans just beginning to discover languages, words and expressions have become more important. So when my 4 year old, Peaches, come back from school and announces that she cant go back unless she has "chopsticks" makes me sit up. Whats all this about chopsticks? Something to do with Chinese New Year? How did I miss this? "All the other kids' parents put it for them." Well, parents definitely don't participate at mealtimes so I had to investigate more. The pout was even more pronounced now. "Its so cold, small children have to have chopsticks." Clear as glass, Peaches has to have a chapstick!
Popcorn, the 2 year-old is a Dora fanatic so she actually knows a few words of spanish from watching hours of Dora. "Verde" she shouts at the screen, or "abajo"! in answer to Dora's questions. This is more than her parents put together. Lets see if it stays with her as she grows. In the meantime, I am hoping to create a verde garden this spring so at least this year Daddy Fractal cant tease me about my noir thumbs! I have beautiful visions of this garden, inspired partly by the Home section of the Washington Post and partly by "Earthly Pleasures".What a write Philippa Gregory is! Talk about the pleasures of reading! But that is a subject for another post and another day.
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