This past week the world as I know it lost a very beautiful, talented, amazing woman who influenced countless lives easily listed in the thousands, each in individual, dedicated, and personal ways. At her passing, her Facebook timeline alone has been overwhelmed with hundreds of tagged posts and direct messages, expressing our grief and gratitude for this woman who did so much for so many, each with Likes and comments from others who may or may not know each other, but who are now uniting in a common bond: love for a shining star of this world. Who could possibly touch so many, individual lives, as a friend, mentor, mother, daughter...so many things, to so many people, having known them, personally, and having shared love and light on such an incredible scale?
A woman who spent her life teaching.
This woman, and so many others, were instrumental in the development of my personal sense of worth and self-respect, as well as understanding that the things that made me "different" were actually perfect to meet needs that others couldn't answer. I was always one who loved to learn; I grew up on PBS children's education shows and read the dictionaries and encyclopedias, simply because I found things fascinating. My mother and I would spend hours, together, meandering the library and choosing armloads of books we would read each week. But it was a number of teachers who taught me that education could be practical and helpful, in contexts that were not about tests and grades. They loved their subjects, and they loved their students, and that was the real education, to me.
Therefore, as I feel a sense of loss of not just a teacher of years ago, but a friend with whom I became reacquainted via social media, coming across this quote seemed perfect to ease the ache:
“The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”
~ T.H. White, The Once and Future King
A lot of things to learn, indeed! Sometimes we get bored in our daily, day-to-day, every day lives, day in and day out. We get into patterns, and we settle into roles, and we work on finding our place within those things, and among the people who are also there. But that boredom can creep in, and begin to nudge and eat at us, despite our best efforts to find ways to ease or ignore it.
Ever hear of TED talks? Get yourself lost in "How To" vids on the internet? Maybe you get swept away by "Do-It-Yourself" ideas that are swirling around, out there? Fascinated by museums, demonstrations, seminars, forums... do you enjoy learning? Have you ever felt the thrill of discovery at something you had no idea existed, but that absolutely made sense and filled you with wonder and excitement? Ever learn how to do something and find that it filled a kind of empty space you had no idea was even there?
Sometimes, when I need to escape whatever is going on, finding something new to learn can pull me out of my "skin", so to speak, and bring me into a place where my sense of self has no limits, and I can absorb new things in ways that leave me feeling better, even happier. When we were children, we had no concept of limits, and we accepted new information simply because it was put before us, and we didn't even consider that we could choose to not learn it! When was it that we started believing that only certain things were worth learning, and many things were not? When did we decide that there was a certain age or level of accomplishment that signified we could stop learning?
The things I learned most in school were things about the teachers, not the lessons. I remember my 7th grade, Spanish teacher being absolutely thrilled to teach us the word, "el bolígrafo". "Doesn't it just sound wonderful, class? It's one of my favorite words in all of Spanish!" It means "ball point pen". A simple, everyday word, and yet suddenly the word had magic and beauty that has carried with me, all these years. I do think it's a lovely word, and whenever I hear it used, it makes my heart smile at the memory of the smile on that sweet woman's face as she joyfully shared her favorite language with us.
In high school, my Physics teacher was a man you'd think belonged more out on the snowboarding slopes than in a classroom. He kept his long hair tied back, and carried himself with energy. One day he held up his coffee cup.
Ever hear of TED talks? Get yourself lost in "How To" vids on the internet? Maybe you get swept away by "Do-It-Yourself" ideas that are swirling around, out there? Fascinated by museums, demonstrations, seminars, forums... do you enjoy learning? Have you ever felt the thrill of discovery at something you had no idea existed, but that absolutely made sense and filled you with wonder and excitement? Ever learn how to do something and find that it filled a kind of empty space you had no idea was even there?
Sometimes, when I need to escape whatever is going on, finding something new to learn can pull me out of my "skin", so to speak, and bring me into a place where my sense of self has no limits, and I can absorb new things in ways that leave me feeling better, even happier. When we were children, we had no concept of limits, and we accepted new information simply because it was put before us, and we didn't even consider that we could choose to not learn it! When was it that we started believing that only certain things were worth learning, and many things were not? When did we decide that there was a certain age or level of accomplishment that signified we could stop learning?
The things I learned most in school were things about the teachers, not the lessons. I remember my 7th grade, Spanish teacher being absolutely thrilled to teach us the word, "el bolígrafo". "Doesn't it just sound wonderful, class? It's one of my favorite words in all of Spanish!" It means "ball point pen". A simple, everyday word, and yet suddenly the word had magic and beauty that has carried with me, all these years. I do think it's a lovely word, and whenever I hear it used, it makes my heart smile at the memory of the smile on that sweet woman's face as she joyfully shared her favorite language with us.
In high school, my Physics teacher was a man you'd think belonged more out on the snowboarding slopes than in a classroom. He kept his long hair tied back, and carried himself with energy. One day he held up his coffee cup.
"This is my cup full of coffee," he informed us as he took a sip. He then poured half of it into the sink at his desk, and refilled it with water, before holding it up again.
"Is this still coffee?" This time, we students looked at each other and said yes, it was, just weak coffee. So he did it again.
"How about now? Is this still considered coffee?"
"Well, maybe on a molecular level!" I was the first to answer.
"Yes! On a molecular level! Absolutely right! You must think out of the box if you are going to learn science, because science is rarely about what we actually see!"He had so much energy, I began to love physics more than any of the other sciences.
I have many examples, but I think this demonstrates my point. I don't speak Spanish very well, but I love languages, and I love to listen to them being spoken. They each have beautiful sounds that if I listen closely, I can hear them like words to a song. I am not a physicist (though I did have a wish to study quantum and astrophysics), but I love seeing things in unique, unusual ways that cause others to look at the world in ways that they might never have seen from within their patterns and roles.
And you know what? That enjoyment of seeing how the world and this life can be different than the way we currently perceive it, has been one of the things I've seen most complimented, by way of the PB Facebook Community Page. Being willing to call us out and cause us to rethink is sometimes just enough to inspire us toward that desire to learn more and be open with wonder, again. How would it be if we could find ways to sneak a little wonder into our days? Maybe fill our MP3 players with educational podcasts of things we are drawn to learning, instead of just music, for the ride to work? Perhaps taking a community class to learn something you always wanted to learn, but didn't think you'd ever have the chance? There are many ways, my friends. Perhaps learning how to find it is the best education, of all!
Better days ahead, my friends!
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