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1-Page Summary of Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls
Overall Summary
This collection of essays and short stories ranges from contemporary politics to daily absurdities in life. The title comes from a reader asking Sedaris to write, “Explore your heart,” but he instead wrote, “Explore diabetes with owls.”
The book is about the author’s life. He talks about love, family and how to deal with the absurdity of life in a humorous way. The story “Memory Laps” focuses on Sedaris’ relationship with his father. When he was 50 years old, he took up swimming; however, when he was 10 years old, he wasn’t very good at it. His mother insisted that he continue to swim despite being bad at it because she thought it would help him learn better sportsmanship skills as well as improve his health and fitness level. However, Sedaris’ father praised another boy for being talented while criticizing David for not having any talent in swimming even though David had just won an award for winning the most ribbons for sportsmanship at a swim meet. At this point in time, David began feeling like a failure because of his dad’s negative attitude towards him but later realized that his dad loved him so much that instead of praising him or telling him what great things were happening in his life (like getting published), all they did was criticize each other which really showed their love and respect for one another since they didn’t want to lie or pretend their feelings weren’t true anymore by saying something nice when they felt differently inside.
Several stories in this essay are about David Sedaris’s experiences traveling abroad. In one story, “A Cold Case,” he talks about how difficult it is to get a new passport when his old one was lost. Another travel story, “Easy Tiger,” discusses the challenges of learning a language for business purposes. When flying to Beijing, he realizes that he forgot to learn Mandarin and spends his time on the plane thinking about Pimsleur (name of a language-learning company) videos that help him prepare for visiting foreign countries. The videos tend to be awkward and the phrases too general for everyday use or sexual situations such as “I never want to see you again” or “It doesn’t work between us anymore” when speaking with natives. He wonders what would ever happen where these phrases would come in handy? He recalls going on vacation with his partner Hugh back in 1999 and being able to speak some German after practicing some phrases before leaving home but most people were eager for him practice their perfect English instead since they didn’t know any English speakers well enough at that point yet so they could improve their skills more quickly than someone who spoke fluent English from birth like himself did so he concludes there is no way anyone can master traveling around the world because each country has its own unique culture that makes it special which is better than mastering only one place because then everywhere else will seem boring by comparison later on down the road if you’ve already mastered everything once already ahead of time without getting anything extra out of your travels while doing them
“Number two to go” is about David Sedaris’s experience of Chinese culture. When he was young, a Chinese restaurant opened in his hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina and it was the first time he tried real Chinese food. He thought that American-style Chinese food wasn’t authentic at all; however, when he traveled to China for the first time, he found out how different real Chinese food is compared to what Americans are used to. The hygiene standards were far more lax than in America. One woman told him people usually cough up phlegm on the street instead of holding it until they’re alone because they believe it’s better for your health that way. Another woman said she once saw a boy defecate on the floor inside a Walmart in Chengdu! She concluded by saying that there’s always something exciting about wondering where your next meal comes from while traveling through China.
