IGNORANCE

Some things I know a lot about. Like, for instance, the number of current test cricketers with a batting average of more than 50. Answer; surprisingly few and none of them English (in descending order, Tendulkar, Ponting, Sangakkara, Gambhir, Kallis, Jayawardene, Dravid, Sehwag, Yousuf, Hussey, Clarke, Samaraweera and Younis Khan, and some of them may never play test cricket again). Yet there are also lots of other things where I am completely ignorant. Not "oh, I am sure you're exaggerating, you must know a little bit" ignorant, but "crikey, don't you know that?, everybody knows that" ignorant. Niks, nada, zilch.

Two examples suffice. The first is flowers. They are things you see every day, and they are very nice to look at; but despite living in the country, I only know the names of about half a dozen flowers. Rose, tulip, daffodil, daisy, buttercup. That's about it; plus dandelion (but that's a weed, really). And even if I got a flower I knew the name of, I wouldn't know what to do with it in order to keep it alive. I am very good at pulling things out of the ground, but making them grow and flourish is another matter entirely.

Is this the sort of knowledge you learn from your mother, in the same way as you learn fishing from your father? My wife and her sisters know all about these sorts of things, and so does their mother. And so does my own mother. Would I have learned it by her side, if I hadn't gone away to boarding school aged 7? I sometimes think so. We had a Scottish matron at my prep school, but I can't remember her teaching me anything about plants. Indeed, my one abiding memory is of her making us eat porridge with salt (yuk!).

The other example is poetry. I studied English literature up to 'O' level, and I am an avid reader, of both fiction and non-fiction. Yet I can honestly say that I can count the number of poems I have read in my life on the fingers of one hand. Indeed, I have probably read more poems in French, since we had to do literary criticism for French 'A' level. I can quote bits of poems, but that is more from having done crosswords for 30 years. A whole world which has given so many people inspiration, joy and solace has been closed to me.

Is this also something you learn from your parents? I have a good friend who has always read poetry, and continues to do so today. He is an only child of bookish parents, perhaps he acquired the taste early in life? For whatever reason, I didn't. At boarding school, I read lots of history, and played lots of sport, passions that remain with me. I learned lots of petty rules, and endured lots of petty punishments. Cleaning 40 pairs of leather shoes, for instance. Aah, cleaning shoes; now that is something I do know a lot about.

Walter Blotscher