Does Mr. Google Live At Your House?

Mr. Google has moved into our home.  He has taken up permanent residence and I’m so relieved he’s here.  “Go ask Mr. Google,” I tell Fred when he asks me some impossible question.  “Let’s ask Mr. Google,” I tell my grandchildren when they ask me what lions, tigers, or bears eat at the Zoo or the names of capital cities for eastern European countries, whose names I barely recognize.  “I need to ask Mr. Google,” I mumble to myself in the middle of a writing project and details escape me.  

When I was a child, family dinners stirred up spirited discussions among my parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles.  No attitude of “children should be seen and not heard” was tolerated around my childhood home.  Before attending kindergarten all the children learned how to chime in and defend their comments by dragging the dictionary, two or three volumes of the encyclopedia, and the Bible to the table.  

When I was a little girl I was blessed with two grandmothers with a thirst for knowledge.  Neither of them had taught school but, in my mind, they were “Master Teachers” deserving of awards for leading grandchildren on a journey through the world of words and new information.  My paternal grandmother made word and guessing games that surpassed anything Parker Brothers could have created.  Around my maternal grandmother no word was left undefined.  When I asked what a word meant or needed some unknown information, she challenged me to search for the definition or explanation in the dictionary or encyclopedia.  “Look that word up, Terri,” MeeMee always said.  Knowing what she would say, I was half way to the bookshelf and listening for her last minute reminder, “When you find the information you need be sure to read the information before it and after it so you’ll learn three new things and not just one.” 

Mr. Google leads me in the same direction.  I type in my search word or series of words and pages and pages demand my immediate attention.  I allow my curious mind to wander through the maze of a dozen or more definitions or pages of information before I harness my focus back to the original intent of my search.  Mr. Google always gives me more than I expect.  I still make MeeMee proud and collect my new information and look before and after to add even more to my knowledge. 

Does Mr. Google live at your house?  “Let’s ask Mr. Google” can prevent and settle arguments, help with homework, and open whole new worlds for young children.  Mr. Google, what took you so long?  My grandmothers would have loved you!