What if I die tomorrow? What if I leave this world before I get the chance to share my life's lessons with my children? By passing my little observations on to them, I give my children meaningful insights from my life, and they give meaning to my having lived it.
Recent events forced me to consider the possibility of my own untimely death, and this consideration prompted me to compile these ideas so they're available even if I do leave ahead of schedule. I will be posting here on Hive to get the chapters drafted and pieced together. These posts will be living documents until the work is completed, at which time I would like to put them together in book form, with the title Big Dipper Little Dipper North Star. ...cool name, right?
Anyway, I'll still be doing my whippies and avatars, but this popped into my consciousness, and I don't ignore it when that happens. In the same vein, I don't plan on writing the chapters in order. They will be updated in the linked document as I go and modified as I see fit. Once they are as good as I can get them, I would like to compile and publish the book so they can always find it one way or another.
Learning new things is about more than just learning new things. It's about learning how to learn. It's about building confidence in yourself and realizing your limitless potential. It's about showing your brain that there is still room to grow, still work to be done - mental decline is not an inevitability, but the brain unused will atrophy. In one of my favorite books, The Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna's charioteer, Krishna, tells the prince:
The body's life proceeds not, lacking work.
Learning is like exercise for your brain; if you stop exercising any part of your body, it will eventually atrophy and rot...take care of your things.
Learning new things is fun and exciting. It can be frustrating if you aren't careful about how you judge your progress, but there is a whole chapter on that already (see Gauging Progress). This next sentence is gonna be a real piece of work, but it's got to be said: Learn to learn things you don't like learning. This may be the things they're teaching you in school, it may be for work, it may be something you need to learn in the process of serving or helping someone else. Whatever the case may be, the brain benefits massively from being reigned in onto something it wants to resist. In other words, when you challenge yourself to do something you don't want to do, you become better at challenging yourself...so reign your brain, take on the challenge of doing things you don't want to do - including learning things you don't want to learn - my best trick for this (so far) has been to find a way to make it relevant. If I'm learning trigonometry, I might convince myself that someday I will need to use it to build a home or support the roof of an underground bunker. If I'm learning a new song, I might convince myself that I'm going to play an open mic night or gig soon and will need it committed to memory. If I'm learning a new knot, I might envision the circumstances under which knowing this knot could enable me to save a life in a dire situation. Once you can believe it is important, it will be much easier to learn.
Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to change and adapt due to experience. It is an umbrella term referring to the brain's ability to change, reorganize, or grow neural networks. This can involve functional changes due to brain damage or structural changes due to learning.
This definition kind of glosses over the very important fact that the aforementioned experiences can be such things as learning for the sake of learning. There was once a time when people were convinced that mental decline was a standard part of the human experience. We are fortunate to live in a period of knowing better. The brain will grow and change as long as the body continues to support it and the user continues to use it. Knowing this, you must also know that you should not wait until you are in decline to make brain exercise and conscious learning a priority; rather, make it a habit while you are young. I also wouldn't wait until my seventies to start trying to beef up...not to say it's impossible, but it's certainly going to be a lot easier to get discouraged if you haven't already learned the necessary habits and formed/refined them.
Learn to enjoy the process of learning how to learn. Don't hold up the learning process by expecting to create your masterpiece. Enjoy the work for no other reason than that it is the work. Block out all thoughts of fame, fortune, greatness, inadequacy, and failure...focus on your works only from the perspective of using each project, composition or task as a tool to learn and improve a process...the rest will follow. Doing this, I believe you will get more joy out of your works, you will be more likely to take your time and less likely to produce crap that you aren't proud of. The process is the art.
Read books. Don't be afraid to pick up new beliefs. Don't be afraid to put them down when they can't stand the test of inspection. Being proven right is unsatisfying and dull - you gain nothing in these moments. Being proven wrong is the ultimate thrill - you get to remove a false belief and replace it with something closer to the truth, in an instant! ...as long as you are honest with yourself and willing to learn and grow, and to accept the changes that come from doing so. If you enter a conversation, knowing and holding fast to the idea that your position will not be swayed, being only fixed on making them see it your way, then you have not entered into a conversation, and should spare the other person the wasted time. A conversation is only a conversation if both parties are willing to listen and potentially be changed by what they hear. Some people are not ready. This doesn't mean you don't give them time. You'll see. Don't try to convince them, but don't give the false impression that you've been convinced. I think it was Lao Tzu who said:
Those who know don't argue, and those who argue don't know.
There is room for peaceful discourse in here, and with practice I believe you will see what it is that I am pointing towards.
For the most part, I would not presume to tell you what things it is you should aspire to learn. Learn what things you are drawn to and focus on them while you are drawn to them. Take good notes and make strong connections so you can leave when the interest fades, and come back when the interest strikes - but don't bind yourself blindly to things when you feel the passion has gone and the purpose is lacking. The one exception to this, the one thing I would venture to suggest you should learn, is your mind. Pay attention to the way it works, the thoughts it receives, the things it perceives. Pay attention to how you can reshape it, command it. The thinking mind is a marvelous servant to the controlling will...and a terrible master to the unwitting soul. Your brain doesn't come with an instruction manual, but you will continue to unlock new features for as long as you continue to study it with a deep and honest curiosity...there is almost no greater calling than this. Learn your brain and use it...don't let it use you. You will see this theme weaved throughout much of this text.
This is by design...just not...my design.
Love,
Dad.
