Learning...

I think we are always learning. No matter how old you are or how much you think you already "know," there will always be someone or something with a different take on whatever is going on. Sometimes they may make you re-evaluate your position on said "going on" and sometimes they may make you mad. But there will always be something. I am always tickled by the "know-it-all" types. I know I was one in my younger, naturally more intelligent years. But it always tickles me (irks me a little too) when someone asks what you think or feel on a subject and then proceeds with a million opinions as to why you are wrong, wrong, WRONG. I have never been one that always agreed with everyone and sometimes I ask questions some may feel are invasive or whatever. But my motive has never been about an argument or a need to be right. Sometimes I am simply curious as to why you feel like you do. I may have another view point that may help you see it differently and vice versa. 

Jimmy and I have situations where people keep saying that they are "learning from their mistakes" and yet they continue to display that this is mere rhetoric. It makes me think of the commonly told definition of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. If someone can help you and you keep reliving the same drama over and over, why not listen to what someone else may have to say?

I was recently very inspired by an excerpt I read from Gloria Gaither's book Decisions. I just thought I'd share it.

"To learn, you must want to be taught...

I think it was Mark Twain, Grandma Moses, or someone equally perceptive who said, 'Learn from the mistakes of others: you can't live long enough to make all the mistakes yourself.' Anyway, that statement is one of the lessons life works hard at teaching us all.

No matter how efficient, smart, or independent we happen to think ourselves to be, sooner or later we run into a 'brick wall' that our intelligence or experience cannot handle for us. We can fake it, avoid it, or blunder through it. But a better solution would be to find someone who has walked that way before and has gained some wisdom from the experience."

Do you want to be taught or do you just want to be right and blunder through making the same mistakes over and over?