things that don't drive me crazy.

i. love. wikipedia.
it is instant access to countless encyclopedias.
i was the child who was told to go "look it up in the dictionary" when i didn't know a word, and then would sit and read the whole page because i was curious. i try to encourage that curiosity in francis, who, thankfully, loves to read and discover. although he is growing up in a culture where trips to the library are getting fewer and far between, i'm finding all this new technology and instant access to information isn't decreasing the appetite for knowledge, but INCREASING it. when i was a kid, i was limited to my school, or my city's library. now we have at our fingertips cultures crossing cultures, and information that seems never-ending! we look up stuff on a daily basis. --did you know...? --did you know...?? we watch a movie, say: the secret of kells. then we go look up "the book of kells" because i can't really remember the details. and then we're like: "hmm... what's an illuminated manuscript?" and hopscotch over there. and then we're like: "what's Vulgate? and Vetis Latina? what's Insular Style?" and then before you know it, we've hopscotched across continents on the world wide web... another hour or so goes by with our brains just absorbing, busy, learning.
this is something i can't get enough of.
our children are lucky...