“I’m still learning.”
Hello All,
Isn’t that a great quote to start the day with? “I’m still learning” – attributed to Michelangelo. I am still learning too – and we should never stop!
The last three blogs were deep. So I decided I should be more lighthearted this week! (I didn’t want to lose all of you as readers!) Here is an idea that I stole shamelessly from one of my dear friends, Loretta, many years ago. I start every day with a little bit of trivia and knowledge from the National Day Calendar website:
https://nationaldaycalendar.com
Did you know there is a national day of something each and every day?
February 28th is both National Chocolate Souffle Day and National Tooth Fairy Day. (A titch ironic that they are on the same day!) Chocolate souffle happens to be one of my most favorite of what I call the “sophisticated desserts”. (Otherwise known as a dessert I would never be able to cook.) And the Tooth Fairy happened to be one of my most favorite of the fairies when I was young. Ahh, the magical appearance of money when a tooth was left under my pillow. The fun part of the story is how the Tooth Fairy came about!
According to the National Day Calendar, “In 1927, Esther Watkins Arnold printed an eight-page playlet for children called ‘The Tooth Fairy’”. Evidently in the 1920s, fairies were used to get children to do all sorts of things, from “bath fairies” to “fresh air fairies”. (Wonder if this would work today? Perhaps a stop vaping fairy!) “In that same year, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle” (yep – of Sherlock Holmes fame) “‘proved’ his claim that fairies and gnomes were real and ‘verified’ this with pictures of two little girls surrounded by fairies.” He used the Cottingley Fairies pictures taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, two young cousins who lived in Cottingley, England. Following this grand verification in 1927, Mrs. Arnold’s play began to be used in schools in 1928 – and the Tooth Fairy has been around ever since.
The Tooth Fairy’s gifts have varied over the years from coins (nickels and dimes) to War Stamps to Green Stamps to dollar bills. I expect that the value of teeth will continue to grow!
We learn so many things in the course of a day. Some of the things we learn are serious and critical to our work/life. Some are silly and fun. We need all kinds of learnings to feed our souls!
Keep learning! And have fun!
Phyl
