The Shape Of Things

After spending the majority of my adult life working two, three, and sometimes even four jobs at once, having the opportunity to spend more time with my two year-old makes me profoundly grateful. It also makes me much more keenly aware of the basics--colors, numbers, letters--and how our lives are touched by them. One fundamental concept I haven’t ever spent any real time thinking about (at least not since I was learning it myself) is how shape literally shapes our world. Of course, I know that what shape people are in--thin, fat, tall, short--is socially important, but what I didn’t realize until now is how plentiful shapes are in our daily experience. There are general shape references like shape up, in shape, out of shape, shipshape, shape-shifter, etc. And more shape-centric language like love triangle, square deal, square peg, circle time, circle the drain or the wagons, baseball diamond, the Hotel Diamond. You’re starting to see it, right? Some shape references are more general, like the oval of a track, the rectangle of football fields and basketball courts, and the highly recognizable octagon of the stop sign, and some are very specific like the Oval Office, the Pentagon, and the Bermuda Triangle. Perhaps you have picked up on the prevalence of shape stuff in your life, but this is new revelation for me. In Judy Schachner’s Skippyjon Jones Shape Up, the spunky chihuahua finds out shapes are everywhere. And so did I now that my experience has come full circle.

http://www.amazon.com/Skippyjon-Jones-Shape-Judy-Schachner/dp/0525479570

http://www.judithbyronschachner.com/skippyjonjones/