We moved to Bonnie’s parent’s hobby farm when the children were 8, 3 and 3 months old. The farm consisted of 10 acres in a diamond shape framed by the highway and the train line. On the hills at the back of the property a rancher had a fair herd of cattle. It was May and the cows were in heat. They would bellow for their lover and the bulls would bellow back, ‘I’m coming, honey!’

In the midst of this cacophony of noise there were the coyotes that had been raiding the pigeon and chicken coop. They would bay but rarely. All of this wildlife and nature was new to my city-raised family. The thieving coyotes were the focus of Grandpa’s concern. Jared, 3, listened intently to all his ranting and then Grandpa pointed out the dulcet tones of the sneaky devils. At this point we all ran out into the yard towards the chicken coop.

Jared was very excited. Every time a cow would bellow he would say, “Listen, coyotes!” We tried to correct him by telling him that it was the cows. He wouldn’t believe us or rather wouldn’t concede that he could be wrong. He kept saying it was the coyotes. We were trying to teach him the difference between the sound of cows and the howl of coyotes. Suddenly, he stopped after one of the cows let out another bellow. He looked very intently at us and said, “It’s coyote-cows! Listen to the coyote-cows!”

Hmm! What did I learn from my little fellow that day? Well, no matter how young you are, no one likes to be wrong. I haven’t met one person who jubilantly says bring on the correction; I’m up for it. Most of us resent the method or the person who corrected us and in our embarrassment can miss the error we have made. Age is not a qualifier, Jared at 3 didn’t like it, and Grandma had 103 didn’t like it either.

But there is an even greater pearl of wisdom than that one. I learned that people often try to understand a concept without really taking the time to learn what is involved. He was 3, had never seen a cow, and had never seen a coyote. He was in way over his head. His conclusion was pretty good for someone who had no idea what we were talking about.

Sometimes you can get away with it. Take football for example! It is pretty straightforward; lots of men on the field with a goal at each end. Must be two teams as the majority of them are wearing jerseys that match. Then there are the funny guys with the really odd outfits standing by the goal, maybe the goalie. Obviously you want one team to put the ball in the other teams goal. How hard can it be? If a person falls down, grabbing his shin, then make all the man noises as if you are upset. Somebody will be upset that either he’s faking it, or it’s for real. All you have to do is be upset and follow the crowd to get the consensus of what went wrong. Don’t go against the flow and whose the wiser?

It worked well for my uncle while watching North American football. He really didn’t have a clue what was going on but hey, he’s a man’s man. Drinking beer with my father and shooting the bull was all he needed. Unfortunately he didn’t know about instant replay. The opposition had scored against our hometown team with a beautiful pass and long run. The replay came on and my uncle jumped up all excited. “My God, look, look, look! The b----------ds did it again.”

My dad just smiled and didn’t say anything. How many people are just smiling at us and saying nothing?