My husband and I run through Trivial Pursuit cards during dinner, both to have fresh topics of conversation and to keep our minds sharp (I won't comment on the success of that). I remember years ago, when Trivial Pursuit first came out, a friend and I played as a team against my parents. We were creamed. So many of the questions drew total blanks from my friend and I, and we couldn't even use the excuse of being young - we had both graduated from college by then. I can remember thinking that the questions were so skewed to a different generation, that my parents had an unfair advantage.

But as we run through the questions now (we do all the questions on each card), I am finding them pretty easy. Where and how did I come to have the answers for questions I was so sure were generational specific? It's not like I read a great deal of non-fiction, or for that matter, fiction based in historical times. I certainly don't watch movies and documentaries that would illuminate information from that era. So why am I able to answer the same questions now with relative ease?

I think part of the reason is being open and aware. I read a book some time ago talking about how if you think of something, you suddenly find it everywhere - has that happened to you? The book suggested thinking of a random object and promised you would see it within a week. I thought of a purple rocking chair, and within 2 days, I passed a truck with one painted on the side. Had I subconsciously seen that truck before and just didn't notice, or was I just more alert to seeing things? Anyway, as a result of that experience, I try to be open to paying attention to the world around me. Not in the 'I watch the news' kind of way, but more seeing what is going past as I travel, randomly browsing the internet following links within links, visiting webpages that gather random information from around the world.

It is always interesting what you find out by accident. But as was made clear in that series Connections, everything is interrelated somehow, its just a matter of staying open and following the threads. Rubbing elbows daily with books helps, of course - and as always, the Library is a great place to start.