It amazes me how many thousands of little things I’ve learned to do in 54 years. There are whole ranges of detailed movements relating to cooking, drawing, gardening, cleaning, and so on which would take a tome to catalog. Beating an egg is something one learns to do, and I remember it being difficult at first, with my little arms not quite able to master the rapid circular movements.

The timing and gesture most likely to snag a mosquito is something practiced, too. So is the shift in weight that means my shopping bag is giving way and the quick readjustment of grip needed to salvage the fruit before it rips through the plastic or paper and hits the sidewalk.

I was agreeing with a friend the other day that one thing that has ended up being so very useful in life is accounting, which neither of us studied formally but only learned by experience. It might have been helpful to study it more formally, as we spend hours a week laboring with the accounting for our households and small businesses.