Thursday, April 15, 2010

I Miss Ignorance

I feel more like an adult everyday. I am pretty sure that I have nose hair growing, I am graduating in a little over a month, and I just filed my taxes today. I miss the days of not caring about anything besides whether or not there were any cherry Popsicles left in the freezer or if the foursquare spot would be taken up during recess. I miss ignorance!

I remember the first time I actually thought about the whole concept of "missing ignorance." Of course, I had no idea what the term ignorance meant at the time, but I clearly recall thinking to myself, "Man, I wish I would have never learned that." It was when I was in 5th grade. No, I'm not talking about the "sex talk" that every young boy and girl receives from the public school system (I actually missed that day because I had to go to a funeral). The Horrific thing I learned that day...was...the existence...of killer bees.

I'll never forget the terror that shot through my 11-year-old body as the narrator of the Discovery Channel Special on the threat of Killer Bees in the United States spoke. He went on to explain the history of the Killer Bee. The African honey bee was brought over to Brazil to develop a new kind of Bee that would produce more honey and be able to adapt to the tropical climate. The man in charge of this operation had a queen African bee in a cage that only allowed smaller European honey bees to enter the cage and mate with the Queen. The offspring of these bees became known as Africanized Bees or more commonly "The Killer Bees." Unfortunately, the owner of these bees accidentally let the bees go, and now they were migrating north to the United States through Texas.

Living in Kansas, you wouldn't think that I would be to afraid of this news, but what I failed to mention earlier is that my family was planning on going to San Antonio, Texas that summer for vacation. I was so scared about getting attacked by a swarm of Killer Bees. Kill was in their name and I didn't want to mess with them at all. I constantly talked to my parents about my fear of the bees, but they assured me that I would be okay.

I stand, actually I'm sitting, here today to tell you that I survived my family vacation to San Antonio. I don't think I even saw a bee the entire time I was in Texas, but I lived in a constant fear of those darn bees. If only I had never watched that dumb documentary on Killer Bees...

Oh, how I miss ignorance! I miss not knowing about federal and state tax. I miss not knowing that April 15th was Tax day, but sadly I'm growing up and I get to experience paying taxes. I have a friend who said, "The IRS is proof that Satan has dominion over the earth." And I couldn't agree more! But I'm free from stressing out about taxes for another year, and in the mean time I would urge you guys not to watch any documentaries on Killer Bees...or the IRS.

2 comments:

Caitlyn said...

There is a saying, "Ignorance is bliss." And it is. If you do not know about something, how can you be held accountable for that knowledge? Even Romans talks about how we are responsible for responding to the revelation that we have received; we are responsible for what we know. The important thing, Charlie, is that now that you have the knowledge of killer bees and of taxes, you use the knowledge - don't ignore it. But since you missed the sex talk day at school, I guess you aren't responsible for knowing about that. You should probably find a caring friend to explain that one to you.

D-Heff said...

There's another saying, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's." So stop complaining.