Stuff I don’t know: Flowers

It will not come as a surprise to many that I don’t know a lot of things. But in addition to not knowing many things, there are also many things that I don’t know that everyone else seems to know, making me feel especially ignorant.

Rather than concealing my ignorance, I’ve decided to keep a list of these things that I don’t know and, when possible, determine the causes of my ignorance and perhaps rectify the situation.

As one of my friends has said, “I live out loud.”
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I don’t know flowers. With the exception of roses and tulips and dandelions, I can’t identify a single flower with any certainty.

My five year-old daughter can already identify more flowers than I can.

I don’t know where everyone acquired this vast storehouse of knowledge about flowers. Perhaps my ignorance is born from my propensity to ignore detail, or maybe it’s the result of my lack of interest in flowers. I can identify many types of trees thanks to my Boy Scout training, but I just checked my Boy Scout Handbook.

Eight pages on flowers. More than two dozen images of flowers.

Just as many pages covering flowers as there are covering trees.

I don’t think I need to make a concerted effort to rectify this bit of ignorance, but perhaps I can ask my daughter to teach me about flowers whenever she has the chance.

Make it a father-daughter thing.