Lesson 6 from Bean / by Liz Thorpe

6. Why can't not knowing be fun?

Not knowing everything, at every second, used to be par for the course. Why can’t it be a rare, delightful, crazy adventure? I can’t remember how, as a teenager,  I ever met a friend at the movie theater, or God forbid, a giant outdoor concert venue. How did we live before we could monitor what our exes ate for breakfast? Someone actually discovered the North Pole without the assistance of a ten-day forecast. Surprises, it seems, have become harbingers of the unfortunate, unexpected and otherwise unwanted life occurrences that we were unable to Google before leaving home in the morning. They’re evidence of life run amok, the things, despite our best and most fervent efforts, we’ve been unable to control.

I want a life where surprise is synonymous with the-really-awesome-party-your-friends-threw-for-you-without-your-input-money-or-time. Not learning whether Bean was a boy or a girl became nothing but a party. (And since my husband is an architect we knew the the décor and layette would all be taupe and grey anyway.)