That’s the neat thing about this life: you can learn something new each day if you so choose. As many of my students know – I love William Glasser – author of Reality Therapy in the ‘60s – but now, talking about “choice theory” – in that — it’s ALL about the choices we make. If you understand Glasser in the manner I do, then you realize that each-of-us is a god, and, can create the world that s/he wants. Heady stuff…
I told my folks years ago (incidentally, Mom and Pop have celebrated their 74th and 86th birthdays quite recently) that they had allowed their intelligences to crystallize, in-other-words – they had it ALL-figured-out years ago — and anything new or different that occurs in the larger world – gets PUT INTO one-of-those-boxes; created years ago.
I can’t live like that or this, or this or that. I know that certain folks once believed that the world was flat. I also know that those same type of folks thought that the Earth was the center of the solar system and the center of the universe. I know that I have to be a lifelong learner – and be prepared to “give it up” to someone who has researched an area much more completely than I have. Just today, I sat in awe of history teachers (who were history majors) and listened to their stories of the whos, whats, wheres, whens, whys and hows.
Which led me to explore the essence of my own naivete. I thought Obama would be dead by now (I can only hope that his wife finds a new fashion designer should he gain the White House). I thought that the American public would have realized that the Bushies have bankrupted generations of this country. And, I certainly never thought I’d hear someone say that Sarah F. Palin could handle the presidency of the U.S. of A. (though I still lust after her): which only reaffirms that: thanks to the electoral college – John McCain could still win.
I feel very, very stupid. It was only this week that I fully understood the meaning of the Petrodollar – and what the U.S. did to the World Economy when we decided to abandon the gold standard and muscle Saudi Arabia into using the American $ as the currency with which oil must be bought with. Wow! Now I fully appreciate those countries we have to smash (though I’m not sure how Panama and Grenada fit into the picture): We gotta smash those countries who can purchase oil with their OWN currency – and not be beholden to the once, Almighty $!
I apologize again for how slow I am on the uptake – but it’s not like I can devote long periods of time to meditate: like Emerson; or Wordsworth; or Coleridge; or, Thoreau (whom Tyler was just informed was a lazy, shiftless lout)…I gotta work. I gotta get those dollars so Tyler and Austen can have their medical (and I can have my optical and dental [particularly the optical – as these computers can fry your eyes]). And no matter how often I think that I can see the big picture – I tend to learn something new every day that lets me know that I’m just seeing a corner of the picture.
Damn! Blast!!
In the immortal words of more-than-one-mentor: “I still gotta lot to learn.”
I long for retirement and my EZ chair – when I can read everything ever written (stuff translated of course) – and nap in between: because all I really ever needed to know…I learned in kindergarten.