Book 304 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title: Grandma’s Cooking Secret!

Book – The Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson

Book Description:

Christmas is the single biggest annual event on the planet, a time for merry-making, over-indulgence, peace, goodwill, and the occasional family row. It’s as comfortable and familiar as a pair of old shoes and yet still glittery and exciting. But what do you really know about it? It’s stuffed full of traditions and rituals that most of us have been observing all our lives without having the slightest idea of where they come from.

Why is it called Boxing Day, for example? Why do we sing about Good King Wenceslas – who wasn’t a king and possibly not even good? What’s the story behind Christmas crackers? Who would have guessed that one of our most popular Christmas carols began as a kind of semi-pornographic Welsh folksong? And how did St Nicholas, a bishop from the dawn of Christianity, turn into the plump and jolly figure of Santa Claus with a flying sleigh and a home at the North Pole?

Reflection:

Have you ever stopped and wondered why do we do what we do? Why do we perform certain acts or honor specific traditions? Ever wonder where these traditions began and what purpose they were meant to serve?

If you are anything like me before this Year of Magical Learning Adventure, you don’t. You just smile, perform the action, carry on your merry way, and say “It is what it is”.

My ClubAny Co-Founder, Trieu, has a story he always shares called “Grandma’s Cooking Secret” that is a fantastic illustration of our society’s penchant for action without thought.

The story begins with a young wife cooking her first Thanksgiving feast for her family where she plans to attempt her first try at making her Grandma’s famous turkey recipe on her own. As she is getting the Turkey prepared, she cuts off both ends of the turkey in keeping with the recipe. Her husband walks into the kitchen and sees the Turkey ready to go in the oven and asks, “That looks great, but why did you cut off both the ends of the Turkey”? The wife replies, that is how Grandma always made it. The turkey goes in the oven and the dinner is a huge success.

The following week the young wife was visiting her Grandma and is telling her about how successful she was at making her famous recipe. She remembers to ask, “I’m curious, why do we cut off both ends of the turkey first”? The Grandma responds, “Oh, I only did that because my oven was always too small to fit the whole bird in”.

I felt like the young wife in this story while learning about the Secret History of Christmas from one of my favorite authors in Bill Bryson. There are countless traditions that we do each year around this holiday that make no sense at all. Yet, we happily do them all the same and say this is how it has always been.

One of the biggest changes in my life during this YOML journey with my daughter is my quest to eliminate the phrase, “This is just the way it is” from my vocabulary. As a matter of fact, I despise that phrase these days. It sends shivers down my spine equivalent to the Hyenas’ in the movie The Lion King hearing the name Mufasa.

Emilia taught me the power of being curious and exploring this world is what makes life fun and interesting. Mindlessly walking through life doing what everyone else tells you to do because it is “tradition” feels like hell to me at this point. Through this adventure with my daughter, my mind has awoken and I’m becoming more and more aware of the world around me. I’m no longer willing to stop asking questions, being curious, and simply conceding to the masses that “it just is the way that it is” and just accept it.

Nothing is off the table in this quest to re-imagine the world around me, that includes even Christmas. Thanks Bill, as always, for your amazing work and curious brain. You inspire me to want to never settle for the “It is what it is” in life.

Stay curious everyone and don’t ever let me hear you say the words, “It is what it is”!

Question: When was the last time you stopped and asked why we do what we do?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - The Secret History of Christmas