Happy Brown Hog Day!
What I’ve realized since discovering that the holiday is Groundhog Day not Brown Hog Day from my preschool days is that staying curious and open to other people’s view of the world can be one of the most beautiful things we can ever learn because when we can get curious, not only do we learn more and experience more truth, but we also invite others to learn things together. And that shared understanding can lead to richer relationships and wonderful discoveries.
I was a pretty stubborn kid growing up. I was quite certain about certain things, and believed what I thought was right to be just so. Thankfully, though, I learned an important lesson about recognizing it when we are wrong as early as preschool, although it’s been a life-long endeavor to learn how to admit it gracefully.
I was in a preschool like most others. We had art time and story time and nap time, although back then I didn’t see the point in nap time so my poor teacher put up with me using the nap time for more reading time. And I remember the day I discovered a neat new holiday. As it was described to me here was the focus of the holiday. A large rodent like creature who lives in the ground, comes up to the surface on February 2 each year and if he saw his shadow that meant six more weeks of winter. It was well beyond me at the time to understand what an odd and confusing logic he seeing his shadow would translate into predicting more winter, but I loved the concept of the holiday mainly for one reason—it was new to me which must mean that it would be my job to make sure that everybody else new about it. And that definitely included my teacher, Mrs. Porray.
So true to my quest to let everybody know about this new holiday about a big rodent with prophetic powers, the first thing I did when I entered the classroom was to shout with as much triumph as I could: “Happy Brown hog Day, Mrs. Porray!”
Mrs. Porray was made out of rare stuff I guess because she smiled and tried to share in my excitement, but she was also a teacher and so she was eager to teach me the proper name for the holiday.
“I think you must mean Groundhog Day, right Chris?”
To this day, I’m not quite certain why the concept of calling this new found holiday anything other than Brown Hog Day seemed so terribly wrong to me. I remember justifying my reasoning by thinking that the animal was brown and therefore it made so much more sense to call them brown hogs than groundhogs. And given the fact we didn’t have groundhogs living in the wild in my part of the country, the creature might as well be a mythical centaur for all I knew. But I did know that I didn’t like being corrected and this triumphant discovery was turning into something much less pleasant than I had anticipated.
I went back and forth with Mrs. Porray until she finally said in so many words that I could believe what I wanted to believe, with a wise smile and nod. Soon after this encounter I realized my mistake, and now Mrs. Porray, still a dear friend even today, I still try to send her a note every February 2 wishing her a happy Brown Hog Day as a fun connection between us.
But when I think about my adult life, I have to admit that sometimes sticking to my guns even though others have very valid arguments to show that I am probably wrong still holds a lot of appeal. We like feeling like we’re right and that the world as we see it makes sense and in proper order. As humans, we have strong need for assurance that we are safe and that we are in control of our lives now and our destinies in the future. So much so, in fact, that scientists have shown that we are even more likely to stick to our guns when we know we are wrong than if we’re right.
What I’ve realized since discovering that the holiday is Groundhog Day not Brown Hog Day from my preschool days is that staying curious and open to other people’s view of the world can be one of the most beautiful things we can ever learn because when we can get curious, not only do we learn more and experience more truth, but we also invite others to learn things together. And that shared understanding can lead to richer relationships and wonderful discoveries.