I Believe in the Importance of Life Long Learning…

When I was a sixth grader both my parents worked. My school was near the public library in town so when school was over for the day I would walk a couple blocks to this beautiful stone building. With my book bag over my shoulder, the idea was that I spend this time to do my homework and wait until 5:30 when my father would pick me up. I wasn’t a big fan of homework in those days and I would do just about anything to avoid it. When I was a kid I didn’t have the convenient distractions of mobile phones, hand-held computer games or iPods, so there really wasn’t much to do but to explore the endless shelves and the quiet rooms of my silent and stoic babysitter.

I started in the children’s rooms, of course, and would pick out one or two books to read at home. Novels mostly – fantasy and science fiction were my favorites – but I was never one for leisure reading while sitting up. I’m more of a recumbent day dreamer; lying in bed or relaxing on the couch were my preferred modes of transportation to other worlds and libraries in my day weren’t accommodating to loungers. So by extension, my interest in kings, dragons and knight and gamma rays, aliens and space travel led me to the reference books and stacks that were filled with true tales from the past and on scientific predictions for the future. And these books weren’t lounging books, they were better used by spreading them out on the table – the pictures, their captions and extended articles would captivate me for hours.

While my homework was lonely and untouched in my book bag I would be exploring the Galapagos with Darwin or building a castle in 12th century Briton. I learned to navigate the card catalog and bibliographies to find books that would help me learn more about topics that interested me or extend the newly discovered insights that I picked up from the last topic that tickled my fancy.

This intellectual curiosity has followed me into my adult years and I tend to seek out information in the never ending resources of knowledge. At first glance, this kind of pursuit may seem a bit anti-social but it’s actually quite the opposite. If you commit to exploring new topics and to read broadly and vigorously you find that you begin to connect with other people who know more about topics and who can add to your interest and breadth of knowledge by sharing their own insights, talents and views. Need to start a conversation at a party? Pull out a piece of trivia you picked up recently and you not only get a discussion started but you learn what makes other people tick.

I still get excited when I have some time to kill in a library or bookstore – all those rich volumes filled with stuff I might not know yet. With the invention of the internet, information is all around us, shared freely, and the libraries of the greatest institutions in the world are always open. Don’t know much about the cultural heritage of a new classmate or co-worker? Learn more, start a conversation and make a new friend. Learn to cook a dish from that culture or maybe a song. Don’t know how to read music? Learn. Do you like the sound of the saxophone? Find out who invented it. This can lead to you learning more about Jazz and maybe then more about the Civil Rights struggle, then the Constitution, then the Supreme Court and on and on. Your mind is a gift and is free to explore topic after topic – a sponge that we use very little of …soak it in…You’re never too old to learn.

The beauty of learning something new is that it nurtures that childhood curiosity and sense of wonder that keeps you young. There’s a reason that the phrase “open-minded” is synonymous with tolerance, because when you resolve to learn and understand new things you let go of judgment and ego…you automatically listen to all sides, you’re reading all perspectives…you’re truly free.