Fajita Asks a LOT of Big Questions
We had the most marvelous day exploring our new landscape. What wonders there are! For example, we found some sulfur caps and polypores (those brown & white ones). Did you know that some people eat fungi? These aren’t edible, but we can’t imagine wanting to eat anything that’s gooey and squishy… or rubbery and a little stinky.
Which leads us to a question- why do we eat what we eat? Do we just like Mexican food because it’s what we’re used to? When we try something new, how do we decide if we like it or not? If the answer is “because it tastes good,” then aren’t our taste buds deciding? Or is it our brain? If our tongue is in charge, we could be in real trouble. Speaking of which…
Fajita learned the hard way why you shouldn’t lick things that are frozen on a cold day. (It’s lucky Taco was with us and breathed some fire to warm up the leaves. Otherwise, we would have been stuck there for quite a while.) Speaking of which, how does frost form? Why is it frosty sometimes and wet sometimes? Why isn’t it ever icy? Or steamy? Also, why doesn’t frost taste better? It should taste like ice cream!
All of this talking about frosty things made us thirsty, so we hopped on over to the little creek. How peaceful! Have you ever heard that saying that you can’t step in the same river twice? How is that possible? It’s something about the water moving by, so it’s always new water. But it’s all from the same place and called the same thing. Which brings us to another question- who gets to name things, anyway? What if we decided to call this the super-cool-colorful-streamy-thingy-by-the-mushrooms? Do we get to? And what’s in a name, anyway?
Fajita sure wanted to test that idea out. I wouldn’t let them because… well, if there’s frost, it’s definitely too cold for a dip. Exactly what is the perfect temperature for a swim, anyway? And how come our grownups get to decide? (At this point, my momma Jicama said we needed to have one minute of silence.)
Thank goodness that’s over! So, next we went to check out this really cool carpet. It looks amazing! How come people don’t put this in their house? Also, why don’t we have edible houses? It would be awesome to have floors, walls, and furniture that you could eat. If you were hungry, you could just take a little nibble. And the plants would just keep growing more, so you’d never have to go to the store. Who invented stores, anyway? And why aren’t there any stores that give away free candy and tacos?
