Letter to my children: Knock Knock Jokes and cultural handshakes
/I am thrilled to report that Knock Knock jokes have entered the house. Thrilled because your Momma truly grokked a few weeks ago the true scope and heft involved in being culturally aware. It is nice to know that there are some parts of our culture that are endemic and appear easily without any work.
What do I mean by that?
I mean that it wasn't until I was listening to Oprah’s podcast that I first became acquainted with Brene Brown. That same week there was an article about her in the New Yorker. Then Tia, when she saw the pile of her books that I checked out from the library, gave me her thoughts about Ms. Brown.
It occurred to me as I was listening to the podcast that the Oprah not only had to spend 1 hour of her day interviewing Brene, but also had to read the book (or at least the crib version) in order to prepare for said interview. I was suddenly struck by the enormity of the task to stay on top of the thinkers/innovations/discoveries/good work/disasters - shall we say "doings" - happening in this world.
The above paragraph is patently obvious. However, the corollary is what really pierced deep. There is no way any one person can stay on top of current affairs, history, or honestly a significant portion of the world's "doings". *
I don't know if this is true, but when I was in college I remember being told that John Donne had read all of the books in print at that time in England. This is beyond my scope to contemplate. It would be a multiyear project to go through all of the books in our Hudson Valley library system, let alone printed in the USA.
Why in the world am I talking about this?
Until I stopped obsessing over the daily news (the morning of 2020 election) your mother did a fairly decent job being on top of current affairs - at least domestically. I was not as good as your father in terms of his penchant for reading The Telegraph and staying on top of sports. But I would read books recommended by friends, or that caught my interest from reviews. We would curate our own diet of the "doings" based on time and interest.
Which is what everyone does. If I loved backgammon - I could spend my time reading backgammon books and playing backgammon and learning about the championship circuit, personalities and histories of the contenders, etc. But the likelihood that I could tell you now or ever all of the names of the leaders in any country except for the US, England, France, or Germany - very unlikely. Embarrassing? Perhaps. But very clearly an issue of time, interest, and exposure.
Never before in human history has there ever been a sense that we might need to keep track of countries beyond walking distance, innovations happening on the other side of the planet, atrocities of the same. Mostly because there was never a threat our civilization could be annihilated by a spear thrown from Mongolia or that we could communicate via satellite to the moon and both poles.
As our world becomes more and more fragmented and divisive. It is not just an issue of a common knowledge, it is also an issue of a common anything.
As I get caught into this obvious tangent I am happy to report that you two have brought Knock Knock jokes into the house - an exception to the above fragmentation.
Knock knock jokes arrived without any effort on my part - which is the first reason I am thrilled. The second reason I am thrilled is that it seems to be a cultural handshake that is universal.
I was telling one of the infusion nurses that you two were peppering back and forth with “who’s there?” His first question to me was, "Do they do the jokes where the answer to "who's there" doesn't make any sense, but is hilarious, and everyone cracks up anyway?"
It is almost as if he was at our breakfast table that morning.
“Momma, momma. Knock, knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“Lampost.”
“Lampost who?”
“Bang! Bang!” Gales of laughter. Bright eyes. Crinkled nose.
“Momma, knock knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“Pillowhead.”
“Pillowhead who?”
“Banana!” This one almost made you two fall out of your chair when the Dragon shouted this out.
“Knock knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“Tunafish.”
“Tunafish who?”
“TUNA!” Giggles and wiggles. “Oh Momma, that one is SO CRAZY.”
And one of my personal favorites from the Bean. “Knock knock Momma.”
“Who’s there?”
“Interrupting Cow.”
“Interrupting..”
“MOOOOOOOO!!!!”
I love you both so so much, thank you for
MOOOOOOOOO….
hehe.
*I am remembering as a child asking Meme and Baba why becoming the President of the USA usually means that the man's hair turns white. I remember Meme telling me that there is so much information that the President has to stay on top of and keep track of that white hair results
