Should know


2004 02 22    |    etc    no date    2024 +    2025    entries    home

A friend recently posted in his journal asking people to respond with what they think everyone should know. Should we all know how to render first aid, care for infants, tend gardens, be polite, use the language well? It took me a couple of days to come up with a list, which is definitely a work in progress. it's very difficult to figure out what it is you believe all humans should know. And it's not just practical skills either, it's inner skills, personal ones, ones that deal with human behaviour. More than just the practical is important to survival.

I dug around and found a version of that list dated the same day

  • kill, prepare, and cook an animal (we're far too dependant on the grocery store)
  • use their native language properly and well (this includes writing and speaking)
  • know, if not where to find something, at least how to go about finding it (research of any kind is very important)
  • set a bone, stop bleeding, sew a wound, and get basic poinsonous substances out of the body; in other words, at least a modicum of first aid. Hey, I know what to do when confronted with a sucking chest wound
  • make, get, or find basic shelter
  • dig a ditch, paint a fence, wash a window, and raise a barn (or any other building)
  • take a hint
  • treat everyone with the same respect
  • prepare and cook a basic meal
  • make a good cup of tea
  • when to speak, and what not to say, and how to speak in general
  • self-defense
  • accept that most of what you have is a privilege not a right
  • take advantage of their voting privileges
  • read, understand, and respond to properly, body language of all types, including those of one's lover, the actions of drunks, and the mouthpiece that's shrilling your eardrums out of your head
  • make clothing (and perhaps cloth itself), and how to mend it
  • a working knowledge of history
  • grasp the concept that "The foolish and the dead alone, fail to change their opinions."
  • that in a lot more ways than we realise, the only time there's "no hope" and "no chance" left is when death takes you
  • plant and tend a garden/crop, or at least what to do when you are confronted with one
  • care for an infant (even if you never have any of your own), the aged, and the infirm (of mind or body)
  • never to get drunk or stoned unless you're in good company
  • the creation and tending of fire
  • basic understanding of the workings of the human mind
  • basic mathematics
  • use fear, not be a slave to it
  • live with a sadness without wallowing in it
  • learn to play at least one musical instrument
  • behave at the sacred ceremonies of others
  • appreciate the honest spirit of giving, even if they don't appreciate the gift itself
  • live and let live
  • keep your brother without controlling him
  • that art, science, and the spiritual, are not mutually exclusive
  • teach their skills and knowledge to others

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