My information seeker

Here it is, missing the front cover. The Animal Atlas. I thought I had purged it during one of my de-cluttering rampages. This brings back so many memories for Mitch and me. We reminisced last week about how much he loved this book and how much he had it read to him. From the time he was two years old until he was about six this was his most cherished book. My mom remembers the times she would ask him to go find a book for her to read to him and every time he'd run off in search of this book. He wanted to know: what is that animal's name, where does he come from, what does he eat, who are its predators? This was how he learned his continents. He learned so much from this book. After this book came the bird book, another book my mother recalls reading.

He has had many passions that have lasted months or years; he became completely hyperfocused: animals, birds, sea life, reptiles, bugs, countries of the world, ancient times, medieval times, movies, video games, wars, wrestling, UFC, rappers and gangsters. I seriously worried for the past year and a half about his passion for gangsters and rappers, but he assured me it was like all his interests and obsessions of the past; he'll learn all he wants and then move on to something else. I spent many hours trying to figure out how to redirect this interest, but I couldn't.

I've always called him an information seeker, but after having a conversation with my mom in which she called him a researcher, I am beginning to think differently. I've been thinking a lot about Malcolm Gladwell's book called Outliers. I haven't read it yet, but I've watched him in an interview. The book's premise is that people who become highly successful with sustained success, have amoung other things, spent 10,000 hours working on their passion. I think he's making a point that these are not "gifted" people as they have put in much time, amoung other factors, to get where they are. Some of the people who are perceived as talented or gifted, are that way because they've spent a lot of time working on their passion. These are the people who lie outside the average clump or grouping on a scale or graph. If I were to to make and estimated guess, Mitch has probably spent 7,000 hours on researching species. I wonder if he'll return to his former passion? I wonder if he'll become some sort of researcher? I used to tell him when he was little, and wanted to go to Africa to see all of the animals, that when he became a man and went to work for National Geographic, that I would go along as his assistant and carry his bags of books and cameras.

Mailbox treat = Pringles chips, mini Spite pop can and popcorn topper spice; Note = we'll rent new releases(rent one and get one free) and make popcorn with topper