Eugene Never Stopped Learning
I was watching the entertainment channel about six months ago and heard a great, meaningful quote. Penn Jillette, the magician, was being featured and he was describing his career by saying, “it is always exciting to accomplish something you couldn’t a year ago.” I jumped up off the couch, bumped into a small table, stepped on some of the kids Lego’s (very painful), found one of the kid’s crayons and wrote down his quote.
I recently finished the book, “Chasing Daylight” by Eugene O’Kelly.
The book is about a person who was sitting on top of the world, and one day out of nowhere he become terminally ill. One of the stories he shares is that he always played golf with his wife early evening…they were chasing the daylight by seeing how many holes they could finish before dark. He also enjoyed skiing, but over the years didn’t go that often. After many, many years of playing golf and skiing, he describes the differences between the two sports and has come to the conclusion that golf is a much less forgiving sport in that if you have a bad turn, you can still have a great ski run versus golf where a bad shot can ruin your game. This lesson took many years to discover and Eugene goes on further to state that he wishes that he had skied more. He then goes on to say “here I am a 54 year old dying man still learning.”
Penn Jillette and Eugene O’Kelly have had an impact on my life. You are never too old to learn, all of us should be looking at ways to get better. As you read this posting the year is 60% over. Have you learned something new? Are you reading more? Working out longer? Skiing more? If not – you may want to start.
Also, I think a sub-message is one of being open-minded. Learning can happen anywhere and at any time.
Open your mind and open yourself to new ideas, people and thoughts. You may just learn something.
Please let us know your comments.
August 9th, 2006 at 10:45 am
Interesting points, Merrill. I think it can get a bit tricky, becasue sometimes we need to be open-minded to the fact that we may not be as open-minded as we think we are. Some universal truths I have noticed is that almost everyone thinks they are open-minded and willing to learn, much in the same way that everyone thinks they have a good sense of humor, that they are a good driver, and even a good kisser. Ever hear anyone say they are a bad kisser? Ever hear anyone say they didn’t consider themselves to be open-minded?
I think we need to take actions in order to insure that we stay open-minded and TEACHABLE, which is really the key, and hopefully do so without being faced with a catastrphy or some type of calamity. I’m not as good as you are in giving credit to the apporpriate parties, but I recall reading somewhere that a great way to remain teachable is to look at your day-to-day routines and habits, and make a conscious effort to change them every now and then. Things like trying a new machine or excercise at the gym every three months, driving different routes to the places you go every day/week, and even taking random turns to nowhere and figuring out how to get back (don’t forget to observe the scenery along the way). Another thing I like to do is try and observe those people who have demonstrated they are teachable, and see what characteristics they have and actions they take that I feel contribute to their willingness to learn.