Does it ever bother you that there is an endless amount of knowledge of which you will never know anything about?
I go through this realization almost weekly.
Saturday night... actually, I should say Sunday morning, I came to this realization once again as I awoke at 3:30AM and couldn't regain sleep.
Normally, I would explain my seeming insomnia to a worry or concern. But for the first time in my life, I awoke early in the morning only to remain awake because I was thinking about, well, not much.
The topics my brain chose to linger upon were these:
Homemade tortillas
and
Iron Man 2
I don't have much to say about Iron Man 2 except that my brain tends to run through an entire movie in my head several times after I've seen it once. Not really sure why, but nevertheless it does.
The the homemade tortillas, however, are what bring me to the question with which I began this post. Will I ever know everything there is to know about how to make a good tortilla? The answer, of course, is no. And this is aggravating. Most especially because I've yet to attempt to make even one homemade tortilla. Not only that, but there are so many other things I have yet to learn about and/or try out.
So my question to you. Does this thought ever bother you? Do you ever feel that no matter how many Nova's you watch on black holes you still feel like there is nothing intelligent you can say about them? That no matter how many "facts" you can cram in your brain, you'll never get them all in there?
If so, know you have a friend in your frustration.
7 comments:
It IS frustrating, until I remember that I don't really care about black holes. Tortillas, on the other hand, are worth thinking about. And homemade tortillas really aren't that hard to make. Try this recipe:
3 cups flour
4 1/2 Tbs. oil
1 1/2 tsp. salt
Mix together with hands then add:
1 cup really hot water (heat up in microwave)
Mix again really well with hands. Tear off golf-ball-size pieces of dough and roll out into a thin circle (easier said than done) on a well-floured surface. Cook in skillet on stove for a couple of minutes.
Hope you enjoy it!
indweed. by the way i recently read Reservation Blues - the book that Smoke Signals is based on.
last time i found myself in this situation it was a three-layer cake. hmmm, the food theme interests me. we have a good corn tortilla recipe that we made quite often before Tom was born. as he gets bigger and more self-sufficient we'll have the time to make them again. i'd be happy to share it. we do have a tortilla press and to agree with the previous poster, it is extremely useful.
Yes, I often feel far behind in the knowing all I want to know.
Perhaps it's twee optimism in me that takes comfort in the fact that I'll never know everything because
1.) There is literally always something new to discover, which is just my favorite. Who doesn't get bored easily?
2.) There is never an expectation from anyone for anybody to know everything. It can't be done. Only the truly foolish frown at somebody who candidly admits when they don't know something. The wiser just eagerly share that information.
3.) These mortal shortcomings give us opportunity to stretch ourselves. For all of George Albert Smith's years and YEARS of effort in learning how to sing properly, he only managed to passably sing in tune. Wasted energy? Or perhaps an incredible exercise in refusing to accept failure?
Homemade tortillas, yum. I'd be interested in how to make them too. Getting up in the middle of the night and not being able to go back to sleep, not yum. Happened to me last night. As for not knowing all there is to know...I would love an ongoing college course that would just keep teaching me things. That would be awesome. But no quizzes or tests, just on your honor, you want to learn. Hey, I guess that's what NOVA is. Haha. We may never know everything, but it is fun to learn.
I made homemade tortillas with lard and flour a couple times - they turned out pretty good.
And I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who stresses out about the things I don't know and probably will never know.
Rumor has it that Cafe Rio makes my homemade tortillas, but I can't confirm or deny. ;)
I think I am similar to you, when I see movies I dislike (EX Iron Man 2), I tend to run through the movie and pick it part.
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