Learning is neverending endeavor

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January 28, 2010

By JIMMY LOWE The Glasgow Daily Times Thu Jan 28, 2010, 12:33 PM CST

If my grandchildren could cast the deciding ballots, I’m confident they would elect me President. They seem to think I know almost everything. I’ve let them believe that. Why destroy their illusion? Perhaps they find it to be a comforting thought when they are under my care and relying on me.

Also, it’s somewhat refreshing occasionally not to be so humble. It never lasts very long, so I’m in no danger of beginning to believe it, myself.

Truth is, at an age that multiplies theirs by several years, I’m still learning—still searching for answers to questions I never even thought to ask myself at their ages. And to complicate matters, along the way I’ve changed my mind on some of the puzzles I thought I once understood.

One thing I’ve learned is that learning doesn’t conclude after attaining a certain level of education or reaching a certain age. It’s necessary to realize how little one knows in an existence where there is so much to be known. This can be the catalyst toward an ongoing quest for knowledge.

Certainly, I realize how many gaps exist in my understanding. These gaps are there in all levels of learning—the higher, the lower, and the big in-between.

I can understand baby talk, and I can read verse written in Old English. Yet, I can’t understand some of the foreign tongues I hear in our local community, and I can’t read the Bible in its original Greek and Hebrew text.

During past years, I’ve successfully found my way through streets in major US cities. Yet, a few days ago I couldn’t find one of the items on my grocery list when I was searching in the store.

I can usually identify a first edition book when I’m perusing the shelves. Yet, I can’t always identify poison oak when I’m hiking through a woods.

I can make coconut pudding, but I can’t make a coconut.

I’m safe to switch on the light, but I’d be dangerous if I tried to wire a house for electricity.

When it comes to what’s out there in the cosmos, my comprehension is as dark as some of the deep sections of space.

Not having discovered a cure for the common cold has not disappointed me. On the other hand, I’ve been quite pleased to have discovered several stimulations for laughter from time to time.

The location of Atlantis the Lost Continent is still lost to me.

The current preoccupation with vampires in our pop culture is something that I just can’t sink my teeth into.

There’s much that I simply don’t comprehend—much that I just don’t get. Through the years, though, I’ve become a bit smarter. Age and experience will do that.

Even as the grandchildren are growing, they are gaining wisdom, too. Any day now I expect them to discover I don’t know everything. Then there goes my chance at the Presidency.

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