We have all heard the admonition to “be still” at various times in our lives. Usually, at least for me, it was when I was much, much younger and my mother or father or grandparents thought I was squirming too much in my chair at dinner or running around in the house, knocking into adults, or playing too rambunctiously with other kids. It was a physical thing.

Two days from today on the fourth Thursday of November, people in the United States will celebrate a national day of Thanksgiving. A similar holiday is celebrated on the same or other days by people in many nations.
 

Recently on TV, I was attracted to a Cascade dishwasher detergent commercial featuring child actress Sierra Richards, who seeing her “mother” rinse off the dishes before putting them in the open dishwasher asks, “just what does the dishwasher do?” This question is an example of thinking critically about what the “mother” in the commercial was doing.