Saturday 13 April 2013

L is for Lifelong Learning (A-Z Challenge)

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.
  Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” 
(Henry Ford)
 
Lifelong learning is inevitable, in one sense. We can't help it: our five senses make sure of that. Everything we experience must teach us something. But what I'm talking about in this blog is deliberate, purposeful enquiry - more than experience. I love the quotation by Henry Ford (above) because it speaks of one of the many fruits of learning - keeping the mind keen and vibrant. It might mean taking a course or going on a journey, reading a book or having a conversation with friends. But it's not the act itself; it's the attitude and intention with which we do it.

When we are children there are good evolutionary reasons for being credulous but when we attain adulthood we begin to come to our own conclusions about life. And we should take full advantage of our innate capability to experience, to reason and to develop our knowledge in a way that shapes our values and stimulates our minds. And as we get older we will know that it was time well spent. Because of lifelong learning we may become old of body but we will be young of mind.

5 comments:

  1. When we stop learning, we stagnate. And since nothing in life is stagnate, that mean we are actually moving backward rather than forward.

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  2. I love to learn new things, but it seems to ebb and flow with me. I will go in spurts of reading a variety of books (not all fiction) and then it will shift to some other hobby. Until eventually surging again.

    If it weren't so expensive, I'd enjoy going to school to learn anything/everything I could.

    I'm sure I can find a lot of things online, but I've always been one to learn best from observation/hands-on.

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  3. Jak, Alex,
    Thanks again for your input and comments. It's great to hear your views. What did we ever do before the Internet?

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    Replies
    1. I cried myself to sle... wait, I still do that. I maybe masturbated a lot less? lol sorry about the crude joke, but it seemed really funny in my head!

      Off to read your other entries!

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  4. Yes, it's good for you I'm told!!!.... The Internet that is ;)

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