AgWired

Calling all teachers and parents and those with nieces, nephews, cousins…OK, I’m basically calling everybody. You have to read this book, “Cows Can’t Jump,” by Dave Reisman. The book is about embracing our differences and focusing not on what we can’t do well, but on what we do best. In a world where a child’s self-esteem is attacked and challenged each day, this book helps gives children the tools they need to feel good about themselves and others and treat them with kindness, love and respect.

This lesson is learned through the eyes of various animals including a cow who can’t jump but who can swim who just so happens to be friends with a gorilla who can’t swim but can swing from a tree. You get the picture. While this book has fabulous illustrations by Jason A. Maas, and is geared for young children, you could make a case that this is a good book for adults to.

I think we spend so much time being harshly competitive in the workplace and not considering others’ feelings when we try to “get ahead” that you see self esteem issues among adults as well. So between the “Purple Cow” and Who Moved My Cheese? should now be a place for “Cows Can’t Jump.”

This is a beautifully illustrated and captivating tale that will make you smile with each reading and I give it high praise.

I’ve written before about my great-grandmother. What I didn’t tell you is that she died three months before I was born. From the stories my brother tells me, she always had a cookie jar on top of the fridge, filled with cookies or candy that were just sure to ruin his supper (which is another word I had to re-work back into my vocabulary because it’s supper, not dinner). My aunt has memories of her, too, one of which is the image of her feeding piglets (or working in the garden) with a particular blue sunbonnet on.

The sunbonnet here isn’t blue, but she had made this one and saved it for “good occasions.” The photo on the left is my grandmother when she was about 9 months old. These sunbonnets were all hand-made (cotton and a sewing machine), sometimes from material that came from patterned seed sacks. Slats were then cut from cardboard and put in the brim to hold it out away from the face to shield it from the sun.

Back then, tossing on a sunbonnet for everyday yard work and gardening was common practice. Fast forward to the days of ball caps and Jackie-O sunglasses and as few clothes as possible (just enough to still be fashionable) in order to get a tan while riding a lawn mower (key word riding).

This sunbonnet was resting in a trunk in my grandma’s basement, waiting to tell its story from just before I was born. I guess in a way, I have memories of my great-grandmother now, too.

Until we walk again …