AnOublietteofThought

Do you ever stop and think about all the things you have done in life and all the skills you have learned? It's not something I really think about. Not often, anyway. I have a girlfriend who sends me these little memes that list any number of things that someone is supposed to have done, because she knows I enjoy that sort of thing. She tells me her score and persons she works with who also take it, and I am always quite surprised. I have usually done most of the things on the list, if not all of them. Often at a much younger age than the group she is telling me about ,who has done almost none of them.

I used to think that was a generational thing, or a location thing. Maybe a socioeconomic thing. It's probably all of the above, and a little bit more. It is strange how so much becomes lost so quickly. There are things I just take for granted as common sense knowledge that most people I know have no idea how to perform. I would say that in the last decade or so, my perspective of people has changed quite a bit.

We place so much emphasis on diplomas that often teach book skills, but can forget the importance of hands-on training. We also forget that a person does not need to attend a university or college to educate themselves on a subject in today's world. We forget to analyze, question, discuss, and think in a broad direction. We are also not taught to listen. Listen. Listen. We judge persons for their vocabulary, and we weaponize language and dialect. Yet we never know where a good idea will come from or what might spark our imagination.

I think that I am very fortunate to be part of Gen-X. At my earliest years, I was being taught by people who were alive in the 1800s. I was shown skills from people who participated in both World War I and World War II. Not to mention everything that came afterwards. I was taught how to grow my own food. How to track an animal. How to navigate through the woods. How to find clean water. How to gather seeds. How to work traps. How to shoot a rifle. The aspects of working on a car. How to do all sorts of things both inside and outside of the house, before I ever attended school. Obviously, just the basics at that time. But I was a sponge soaking up everything around me, and everything around me was teaching me how to survive without modern help necessarily.

I listened to the stories being told by both men and women. I do not even remember the names of some of the older generation, but I adored them at the time. I learned how to ride a horse. I attended many a rodeo. I learned how to do things that I probably don't even realize that I learned how to do, just by listening and watching. I was curious. That curiosity was encouraged. I quickly learned how to read and devoured books. All kinds of books. Including encyclopedias. Encyclopedias were magical at that time. I deeply enjoyed reading them from cover to cover because I never knew what I was going to discover. But there was always the chance to inspire further exploration.

I ran all over town both on two legs and on a bicycle. Adult totally knew where I was going if I actually told the truth about where I was going. I did eventually get to wherever I said I was going, so that I wasn't lying, but I wandered a lot. I learned to climb high, to take risks, and to be thoughtful in doing so. I learned how high I could go and jump before it started to hurt. I also learned landing the wrong way from a very short height at the right trajectory could break a bone. I aspired to be both a monkey and a dolphin. I wanted to be an eagle. It is fortunate that I could not get supplies to attempt to make myself “proper” wings without being caught.

It is also probably fortunate that I did not live anywhere near cliffs. I would like to think I was bright enough not to do something stupid, but I would not have bet money on that. I was always pushing myself and doing things considered crazy by today's standards. At the time, it was just explorative play and mini adventures. That is all still just my childhood. And it continued to grow as I got into my teens. Then came the adult years. I look at what I have done and the knowledge I have acquired between those years, and I admit that I might be a little impressed with myself. Or rather I should say, that if someone else told me what I know I have learned, I would be impressed with them. It's a little different since it is just me. To me, it's no big deal because it's been acquired naturally.

I am often told that I shouldn't disparage myself. Usually the person who says it doesn't realize I'm not disparaging myself. I'm confident in my skills. I'm also aware of how much I don't know, and I'm not afraid to admit it. There is so much that I don't know, but damn will it be fun trying to acquire more and more knowledge with the years that I have remaining in this particular body.

In recent years, I was conversing with someone and they asked if I saw myself as a renaissance woman. I contemplated it for a moment, and thought how wonderful would that be. I think I said something along the lines of, “Maybe. Or a polymath. I'm just a perpetual student with infinite curiosity.” They then explained how being a renaissance man is a negative thing in today's society. I listened to their reasoning, and was a bit humored. Give me a renaissance man! They are very under-appreciated.

Today, I look around at everything around us. Our entire society uses mechanisms that we cannot recreate ourselves. We cannot make computer chips or many other things by ourselves. The majority of the world does not even have the understanding of how to do it. Much less the multi-million dollar machines required to do it. Hell, most people no longer know how to change a tire by themselves. They're driving this car day after day, and cannot make a simple repair. They can't change their spark plugs. They can't change their oil filter. They can't change the oil. Many people can't follow instructions. Simple instructions.

I think about that. There is fortune in being able to do something with your own hands. Yes, sometimes it is not necessary. Yes, time is priceless. But so is knowledge, understanding, and capability. A vast lack of knowledge and willingness to learn and continue learning is a big part of what is wrong in our world. Not to mention arrogance, hard-headedness, ego, laziness, and selfishness. With a dash of being blind to the big picture, time, and just how essential ecosystems are. Nobody likes vultures, cockroaches, or sanitation workers. Yet without them, we would be royally fucked. Completely and royally fucked.

I wonder where we are going. The powers that be want us to believe it is outer space. That is such an impossibility on so many levels at this time that it is mind-boggling how many people don't comprehend the vast hurdles that have to be jumped in order to make that happen. (Hello, run on.) We simply don't have the data nor the ability to do so much of what is required to make that a reality. We are nowhere near it. We are so far away from it, that we don't even know everything that we need to be looking for.

I suppose that is how it has always been with us, isn't it? Instead of relishing and nurturing what is under our own feet, we look out to the stars and want to be planted anywhere but where we actually grew from. I have no room to talk. I wanted to get away from as young as I can remember. Yet no matter what I've learned, or where I've gone, deep inside I am still that young child who just wants to dig her toes into the soil, and listen to the Earth sing.

Perhaps that is something else we have forgotten—the healing beauty of song and dance. As well as the wondrous orchestra of Mother Nature.

How about you? What have you learned? What do you not know, but hope to one day learn? What experiences have you acquired that are good to pass on?

We tell stories. We make judgments. We stand firm in our ideals. But do we remember the importance and gift that it is to be self-aware, to be capable of sharing, and if one's belief system says it to be true, do we know how to be good stewards? Or do we just flaunt a title with little to no responsibility or accountability for our actions or lack there of? Sometimes, I think that perhaps we are not as self-aware as we like to aggrandize ourselves to be.

I think of all I've learned and all I've done...It is a lot. But it's but a fraction of a fraction of a microscopic fraction of all that is waiting for me to soak in.

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