Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Tested Truth 6/16/09

Life is a library.

Joe Theismann
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Good day to you.
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Ignorance is a terrible thing, but it's curable. Arrogance is also terrible, but much harder to cure, it seems. Some people have a nasty habit, when they learn something new, of acting as if they always knew it and putting down people who don't. I got a lot of that growing up. "You don't know such and such? What's the matter with you/" or "Where have you been?" Those remarks were usually accompanied by a scornful snicker.

"I'm better than you because I know something you don't."
"Well, then tell me and we'll both be better and the world will be a slightly nicer place."

Knowledge is not something worth getting arrogant about. Superior knowledge is nothing compared to a superior life.

"Life is a library." And we are all librarians, The tomes in your life may be different from those in mine, but they are all leading toward the same goal, which is wisdom. There's a saying, "When an old person dies a library burns down."

I like to think of life also as a farm. In our early years the harvest is small and we find we've garnered some useless crops. As we grow so does the farm and we become more careful about what seeds we sew.

As time goes by we gain a better harvest. We learn how to separate the true grain from the regrets, errors, mistakes, hates, rages, prejudices, fears and failures. We sift through what's left and one day we find we have more grain in the silo and more seeds in the bag than we can use. Then it's payback time. Time to provide for the young farmers just learning. Time to open wide the library and share the knowledge, free for all.

As senior citizens we have the right and privilege to do that. A life lived is an obligation to life. We have a sacred stock of wisdom, however great or small, to share with those who are no longer arrogant in their ways.

And that is what Vagabond Journeys is all about.

DB
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May a nice spring breeze tickle your chin and mess up your hair.
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7 comments:

Beth said...

I love the analogies and the sentiment. Oddly enough, I also wrote about seeds tonight! Hugs, Beth

Linda S. Socha said...

This is such a timely post and reminder of strugglesin process. I love the life is a Library thought. Yes
Linda

Big Mark 243 said...

I agree with both of what the previous comments said. I think that what I do is to encourage and spread what little I do know ... and like most fertilizer, some of it may stink, but still something useful may grown from it!

Arlene (AJ) said...

DB, loved this post, says it all. Life is indeed a library. Have a good day.

Char said...

Ignorgance (curable) and arrogance
(not as easily cured). I like these comparatives.

Dannelle said...

May a nice spring breeze tickle your chin and mess up your hair.

I like this sentiment- but I don't have chin hair ha ha.
Dannelle

Gerry said...

I have thought so many times what a very large country you live in if you read, for each book expands your knowledge, understanding, and even visual picture of another part of the world the writer inhabits. But once the appetite for books has been stoked it is a job to keep finding the books that will satisfy it, but somehow or another I keep doing it, so I don't go mad with boredom and the limitations of the small world I really inhabit. One can truly get lost in a writer's world if the story is mesmerizing enough. Gery