Sunday Salon: The Importance of Reading

With a mother like me, you'd think my children would realize how important it is to read, to read everything, and to read carefully. But like children the world around, they don't always pay attention to me. And here's the result:

Let me tell you what exactly you're looking at. When you move a boy child into college, the joke is that you hang up a flag and you're done. It's funny because it's essentially true. And my youngest is a huge flag fan so it's extra true of him. His college delayed move-in for the kids in the dorms by a month but when he finally did get to move in, the only decoration he cared about was the state of Ohio flag his girlfriend gave him. He can (and will) wax poetic on why the Ohio flag is the best state flag out there. So of course he took it from his room at home to hang in his dorm room. It took up one entire wall. But he had another wall that needed something so he decided he needed a state of North Carolina flag to hang there. I fully intended to buy and ship him one. Before I could, he had ordered one himself and sent me the above picture. In case it's hard to tell, that grey wrinkled thing at the bottom of the picture is his pillow. And it's just a standard size pillow. "My NC flag just arrived" and "It's 4x6 inches not feet" and "I'm a little upset." (By the way, I don't think he intended the humor of that last bit, a "little upset," but boy howdy did it make me howl with laughter.) When I finally talked to him, it turns out that he didn't read the description fully. Let that be a lesson to you. Reading is important. And mama told you so.

And before you ask, yes, I sent him a full sized North Carolina flag. Because I'm a good mom. He did hang the large flag but he also left up the itty bitty mini flag. Because it's also important to laugh at yourself.