Jackfruit

It’s not that the kids have been asking more questions since the trip started, it’s that I have fewer answers. Part of the joy of traveling is encountering the unknown, the unfamiliar, the new. But one thing that’s not new is me. I’m the same. And traveling is my time to shine.

We were walking around a harbor in Fiji, waiting for our shuttle to the resort, and Jules found this thing and asked me what it was.

First of all I’d like you to know that the photo is a reference to the painting “Son of Man, by Rene Magritte. Second of all, I answered, “It’s a jackfruit.”

Is it a jackfruit? Could be. But probably not. I’m from Connecticut, I live in Idaho, and I’ve never been to the South Pacific. I honestly have no clue what that thing is. I could easily google it, but I don’t really care and that’s not the point. Might not even be a fruit. Could be a nut.

So why did I say that? It is because I like saying “Jackfruit”? A little bit, yeah. Jackfruit. Jackfruit. But mostly, it’s because a know-it-all doesn’t pause for mere ignorance. It’s a integral part of one’s character that has zero connection with the wealth of one’s knowledge. Just because someone’s an extrovert doesn’t mean they’re charming. I’d say more than half the reason I enjoy birding is that it provides constant opportunities for knowing it all. Look at that a rainbow lorikeet. No one checks, because no one cares.

About 15 years ago I heard a guy tell his girlfriend, “You know, Emily…” and let me pause right here for an aside. Like the quark of a raven, the phrase “You know,” [your name]” is the bird-call of the know-it-all. And, as my friend Willy sagely observed, you will never want to hear the rest of any sentence that begins with the phrase “You know, Willy…”.

Anyway, the guy said to his girlfriend, “You know, Emily, it takes two things to be a know-it-all: you have to know everything, and you have to tell everyone.” To this day, I have no idea whether he was a supremely un-self-aware know-it-all or a comic genius. If it was a joke, I love it with all my heart. But I’d argue that he was incorrect, and it only takes one thing.

In closing, jackfruit.