Learn Something New Every Day

Day 18: Years ago, I encountered a simple and wise phrase which became the byword of my life from that moment on: "Learn something new every day." It doesn't have to be a big "something." It could be as simple as picking up a bit of new information about an historical event from a casual reading of the newspaper to digging through a five-foot stack of field guides in order to identify a plant. It could be Googling for the properties of tungsten or when best to plant crocuses, or it could be teaching yourself a whole new skill like...well, like how to use a soroban.

Two weeks ago, I didn't know that there were two main types of abacus in common modern usage, the Japanese soroban with four beads in the lower register, and the Chinese suanpan with five. I discovered that fact when the whim struck me to buy a cheapo model for my next round of mental exercise. I had figured it would come with instructions, at least for addition and subtraction, but it did not. Again, I resorted to Googling, only to have a verified "safe" site crash my computer with its advertising plague. Thoroughly put off from that resource by the experience, I turned to Plan B: the library. Our wonderful Timberland system had nothing to offer anywhere in its stacks, but my favorite librarian had pity on me and with her greater Googling skills and the library computer, came up with a thirty-page document which should be sufficient to teach me the four basic arithmetical functions. I suppose that will have to do, since I'm not likely to need square roots when balancing my checkbook.

Mental calisthenics, here! A-one, and a-two, and a three! Pinch those beads together! Slide! Reset!