Querying

I had another doctor’s appointment this morning; the last for the week.  It wasn’t as early as the others, so I slept more comfortably— I actually fell asleep around 8:30 last night, and managed to get a solid 8 hours, which is just amazing.  Jerry tucked me in early, climbed on my tummy, stretched out and had a good sleep… Don also enjoyed not having to be up and out before the sun, so it was nice having a later start.  I’m resting up this evening, because tiredness just sort of creeps up on me.  I know that tiredness is an effect of radiation treatment, and it will be less than great for a few days, and then will improve.  I’m in the first part, and the boys seem to realize that I’m not too energetic, so they don’t press me too hard.  My nurse dropped by today to check on me and bring me a biryani for lunch (it’ll be about 3 days’ food) which was so kind of him.  The only really negative and mildly worrisome thing is that I’ve lost more weight.  Definitely got to eat more!

I’ve got several people who say “they never taught me this in school,”, and go on about “why don’t schools teach <XYZ>?” Or “If they’d taught this in school I’d have paid attention,” “I’d have enjoyed Literature more if they focussed on popular authors.”  and other such statements.  Shocking news — no, you wouldn’t.  If you were one of those people who had a habit of sleeping / talking / joking / playing during class, then you’ve missed about 85% or more of what was covered.   In brief, those are all very lazy excuses to cover up why the gaps in your knowledge haven’t been addressed in your adult life.  When we were kids, there were people who would say, “Boys don’t like girls who are smarter than they are; so never let anyone know that you know that you can do things.”  Then they would encourage us to focus on looks, and praising guys for minor achievements.  You might guess that I didn’t go along with that, nor did my particular set of friends.  We were well established nerds, who enjoyed learning, and were content to treat boys as equals, not minor lords.  I asked several of them about this “why didn’t we learn this in school” stuff, and all the items that were mentioned we’d learnt in class.  Since we studied different subjects, the overlaps were in the early years of high school, or in elementary school, so not specialized.  Sorry for sounding blunt and grumpy; I’m just tired of people making themselves seem stupider and downplaying education.  Being intelligent and educated is not a crime nor is it wrong to learn.  It is, though, cruel to discourage and disparage those who do.  If you want to make yourself look dumb, I suppose that’s your choice, but then don’t attack those who like learning. 

I’m going to bed, because I’m probably too crabby and tired to make much sense.  I’ll go play with the puppy and get some sleep… and hopefully I’ll wake up hungry!  Good night.