Star Power

I am continually amazed by people who can do things that I can't, because Hey, I want to do that!

This applies to just about every human endeavor, but today's specific application is spatial perception. I'm not notoriously bad at it, but I'm not good either.

I found this thing today about how Betsy Ross talked the founding fathers into a 5-pointed star on the flag instead of a 6-pointer like Geo. Washington wanted.

They said, "Five points is too hard."

She was like, "No it isn't." And she folded up a piece of paper and with one cut made a perfect star.

And they were like, "Witch! Don't kill us with your strange geometry magics!"

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For some people, this stuff is just obvious. Pythagoras started a religion based on it. Me, I have to learn it.

I used to think that there were things I couldn't do. Some things were just unavailable to me. Now I know that's bogus. It's just that some things are too much work.

At the point in life where I'm supposed to begin seeing doors close, to begin realizing that I'll never be an astronaut, I'm excited about what lies ahead. Here's the key, here's my trick. I'm sharing my trick with you that I only just learned in the last couple/three years. I'm putting it in tiny type to preserve the secret:

You have to try hard.

As a smart, talented child, I never had to try very hard. I just aimed my brain at something, and adults fawned. When I became an adult, the accolades stopped, and I was confused. But now I've figured it out again. You have to work at things.

I probably won't care enough to get good at spatial perception? But I can learn from Betsy Ross's know-how, and get better. Middle age is going to kick ass for me.