Open The Book

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little.

Buddha
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This morning I woke at 7:30. In my retirement I'm known to awaken anywhere between 5:30 and 11:30 depending on how much time I spent arguing with my computer the night before. Whenever I get up early I'm always pleased to feel that I have that much more of a day to do things. And what I do is write, paint, read and learn things. In my senior years I've become a scholar, something I had no interest in being when I approached college.

I think we should all be born educated. Youth is too much fun to waste it studying to pass tests. That's one of nature's big jokes. Another one is why seniors can't remember things. I can reel off about 25 to 30 names in the next 2 minutes, of composers, authors, painters, actors and friends. Why is it the only name I can't remember is the one I'm trying to think of? Let's face it, Mother Nature is a humorist. If she weren't she would never have made the koala, the giraffe, the penguin and the wart hog.

A few days ago I wrote about how sad it is that there is so much to learn no one person could ever know it all, but that it is also a joy to know there is always something more to learn.

Sometimes I think about how nice it would be to live in a cottage by the sea, to sit on my back porch with a cold beer, listen to the waves and watch the seagulls do their thing. But that's not my way. I have to be content with an occasional glimpse of the river, the song of a single bird in the tree outside, with no company but a mug of Maxwell House.

I love to learn new things and relearn some old ones. For one thing the combination of a curious intellect and 7 decades of life experience gives one a healthy perspective on the world. It is easier now to tell the difference between what is serious and what is not, and that most importantly includes myself. I spent too many years taking myself too seriously. Now I can laugh. As long as I avoid the things I regret, I can have a jolly time and laugh at myself for getting annoyed because I've run out of donuts or bananas.

I always want and expect to accomplish more than I do everyday. I will be busy writing, painting or reading and become a little depressed when I see darkness and old night creeping through my window. But once again Mother Nature, in her infinite solitaire game, provides me with another day. The sun is up, the bird is awake, the river is still rolling and I have a book to open.

In the mail today I got a brochure from a book club, and one of the books advertised is: "The Overflowing Brain, Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory" by Torkel Kingsberg. I'm not going to buy the book even at their gracious special offer. I don't want to be told about limits to my working memory just because I can't remember someone's name when I want to. Besides I need the money for donuts and bananas. But I am amused at one of the critical remarks about it from the Sacramento Book Review which says "...the increasing demands on the brain might be just what we need." I'll drink to that. Why stop thinking and learning just because you seem to have passed the Marathon running age? A younger man might say "Why do you bother leaning new things? What are you going to do with all that knowledge?" My answer would be "I'm going to know it. That's what. What do you do with half the stuff you learned in college?"

I rise up in thanks for the little bit I learned today that I didn't know yesterday.
Why do I learn things Mr. Buddha? Because I enjoy it. And as much as possible, and contrary to the nihilism of some confused teachers and preachers, life was meant by the Creator to be enjoyed.

DB - The Vagabond
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"These are the last days!"
WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Given the resources and opportunity, what one thing do you want to do in 2010 that you've never done before.

You have Winter to answer. Answers will be posted on the first day of Spring.
Only 20 responses so far.

DB - The Vagabond

Kindling Knack 4/15/09

Genius is the talent for discovering what cannot be taught or learned.

Immanuel Kant
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Hi. Government got your money?
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Einstein once said he wasn't a genius but that he was just very curious. I don't know but I guess curiosity is behind all endeavors that transcend what people seem to know. It has been said that education begins the moment you leave school. That's when you start to find out some of your teachers knew what they were talking about, some of them knew some of the time and others never did know. Leaving school and going out into the real world requires shedding a lot of skins.

In my own career I have seen young people come into professional theatre fresh from some drama department or school of the arts with the stupidest ideas as to what acting is all about and what actually goes on in a professional theatre. It's painful to see them struggle to let go of what their favorite professor taught them to do. But letting go of useless training is essential to finding one's way in any important endeavor.

There are theories, there are practices and then there are discoveries. Theories are like rule books, written or compiled by somebody along the way. They generally say that if you put this with that then the other thing is going to happen. Some of these rules are good, others are not. One has to decide for oneself. And that's where the practice comes in.

I know actors who act by the numbers, as the saying goes, who think they know how any given scene should be played based on similar scenes of the past. If they have a love scene they will perform a generic love scene with no love in it, a rule book love scene. No risks taken, nothing learned.

Then how do discoveries come about? By asking questions. By curiosity. By saying "I wonder what would happen if I tried attaching a flat piece of wood to the bottom of the ship with a handle on it. Maybe I can steer it that way and I wouldn't have keep moving the sails back and forth by hand."

In short, geniuses are curious people who put the rule books aside, imagine, think things through, try them out and keep trying until they work.

Maybe you qualify as a genius but don't know it yet.

DB
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Have another one on me.
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Lively Language 12/22/08

We don't know all the answers. If we knew all the answers we'd be bored, wouldn't we?

Jack LaLanne
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On my first day at college the president and head master at the school gave a speech to the freshman. I don't remember much of what he said, but one statement has stuck with me all my life, "Curiosity, and in particular, intellectual curiosity is the basis of all learning."

Over the years I've thought about the undeniable truth of that remark. Taking that truth to heart and mind, living with it every day, applying it and practicing it equals at least four years of college.

In my career I met some intelligent actors and directors who were not interested in any ideas that were outside their realm of occupation. I often felt like a stranger in their midst. Because of that teacher's true remark and it's permanent place in my thinking, I was always poking into things that surrounded the play I was working on, thus giving myself an education on the side. I would read up on the history or society of the characters, about the playwright and anything else I thought about, because I was curious.

I knew a violinist, a concert musician, who would talk about subjects like linguistics. He played music, he didn't talk about it much. But philosophy fascinated him, On the other hand I had very interesting discussions about music from a fellow who taught Greek and Latin.

Then I had the best lesson in curiosity when I met and got to know a real philosopher who looked intensely into everything he came across. Whatever there was around him to know he wanted to know. He was a calm, friendly, intellectual fellow with an imagination and the curiosity to match it. He could talk intelligently on almost any topic. He had a lot of information and very few opinions. He taught me that I could learn anything I wanted to if I was really curios about knowing it.

It seems like a simple rule of life, but sometimes the simple ones are the hardest to learn.



DB - The Vagabond

"If Winter comes can Spring be far behind?"
Well, if you live in the northern climate as I do the answer is: Yes!