We’re standing there in the parking lot. Standing in a circle waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. Waiting for our workout to begin.
There was a loud bang and some oblong green thing the size of the tip of your thumb bounced off the trunk of a car and rolled on the pavement at our feet.
“Oh,” someone said, “there are so many of those … those green seedy things (if that’s what they are).”
I was at a loss for words. I still am. She’s fast — much faster than I. She’s friendly — always offers encouragement as she passes by on our workouts. But really. She doesn’t know what an acorn is.
On the other hand…
I am reminded of a time long ago when I heard someone describing the final exam for a class she was taking at UT. We were all engineers, but she was taking botany to broaden her horizons. And she was telling us that for the test, the professor walked each of them around campus and had name the trees and plants by their botanical names.
I was stunned. How could anyone do that? Anyone but a botanist. Quercus. Berberis. Asclepias. Ulmus. Helianthus. How could any mere mortal be expected to…
But… acorn.
What a cranky snob I am.