- Anna Maria Junus
Queen of Everything 3: The Scholar
For previous posts on this series go to...
Category - Mind
Symbol - Books
Color - Orange
Word - Knowledge
And continuing on with my brilliance – oh stop choking on your cola.
We probably learn more in the first twenty or so years of our life than in all the other years. For the first five we’re just learning the basics – walking, talking, using the toilet, playing, getting along with others, doing simple chores, and using scissors without poking out our eyes.
At two years old we've figured out how to get the cookies from the cookie jar on top of the fridge by pushing a chair to the counter, climbing onto the chair, then onto the counter - perhaps with the aid of an open drawer, then across the counter to the fridge while avoiding all the things along the way, and then finally to the cookie jar. And then back down with the prize and off to a hideaway to eat them. Seriously - think about the logistics of coming up with that plan in a brain that can't even talk yet, and then being able to carry it out and have the upper body strength to do it. I bet if things were sized according to a two year old's world, we wouldn't be able to pull ourselves up on a chair. Those cookies would never be reached.
We learn please and thank you and how to be kind, and how to manipulate people.
We learn to brush our teeth and comb our hair and dress ourselves and the way to the playground and to our friend’s house and that maybe using the wall as a great big piece of paper to color on isn't an idea that Mom thinks is as great as we do.
We learn that cows say moo, and cats will only put up with playing so much dress up before they scratch us. You may be able to put a bonnet on a head, but there's no way you're getting that Victorian corset around a cat's torso.
Some of us learn to swim, or skate or play drums or how to speak in two languages. I spoke in three mashed together as one. My mother could only understand a third of what I said.
We learn the value of money and that we need it to get a chocolate bar or an ice cream cone and that asking for money got the answer of "no" a lot.
We may learn that planting a seed and watering it will sometimes make a plant grow and that flour and sugar and some other stuff makes cookies.
We learn that some people are mean and some people are nice and most people are both at different times. All of it – every moment of it is learning, even when it’s cuddling in Mom’s arms or story time or sitting in a corner because we hit our little sister. In the next twelve years we go to school and pretty much all of it is about learning. English and math and science which includes studying dead animals. We have to figure out social situations and navigate gym class. We may be in the school play or write for the school newspaper or be on a sports team. After school we may have girl guides, or ballet class or take bagpipe lessons. Seriously - the fortitude of the parent that gives a child bagpipe lessons is truly a wonder.
We learn more complex chores like mowing the lawn and cleaning out the gutters and fixing the car. As we become teenagers we have more difficult social situations and later have to make bigger decisions with bigger consequences. It’s all learning. When we graduate from high school we may end up going to an even higher level of education and there is another several years of learning, and/or we end up in new jobs with new social experiences and new work skills to master and navigate. Such as finding out that the rent needs to be paid on time before you splurge on a new pair of shoes or you won't have a place for those shoes. However as we age the learning process slows down a bit, with peaks and valleys. New parenthood is always a learning curve as are new relationships and new jobs and new cities. But when it comes to learning new skills, we may become lazy. We tend to get comfortable. We may become experts in our jobs, we have our routines. We go to the same places and have the same friends and have decided what we like and don’t like and will avoid the people and places and experiences we don’t like. Because really, who has time to do things you don't like when you don't have to. Some people will even dare to say, “I’m too old to learn.”
I have a saying. “The minute we stop learning, is the minute we start dying.” There is a scholar in you whether you go to school or not. You may not spend the huge amounts of time learning that you used to, but you can still be learning. The scholar is the part of you that listens or watches the news, decides to take a class in something you’ve always wanted to, watches a documentary, reads a non-fiction book, tries out a new skill, studies your favorite subject more in depth, listens to a podcast, does research, or trains for a new job. Let’s say for instance that you have always wanted to learn ballet but didn’t have the chance. Sure, you are probably too old to be a prima ballerina. That’s not a lifelong career anyway and prima ballerinas are done being prima ballerinas before they can say prima ballerina. But who says you’re too old to take a beginners adult class. You will likely never get on pointe (is that how you spell it?), but you don’t have to. Or let’s say you don’t feel confident in your abilities to do that, you can still learn about the ballet. You can go see ballets and read the stories and learn the language and become an expert on ballet without ever dancing ballet. And if you have a tutu in your closet that no one ever sees but you like to put on just for pretend - no one needs to know. It is the scholar’s job to gather the information and then impart the information to the other characters so they can use it. For instance, the scholar can learn about different investments and then the steward can use that information to make wise decisions about investing. Or remember the warrior that I talked about in the first post? The scholar can learn about different forms of exercise and what is safe and what isn’t and the warrior uses that information. And I know that I’m starting to sound like I have multiple personalities, but in a way we all do. We all have different behaviors for different tasks or different people. The scholar is in charge of learning. Any goal that you have that requires gathering information is the scholar’s job. The scholar is like the library in your brain. When one of your other characters needs information they go and grab that book.Hopefully, it's not checked out or fallen somewhere into a dusty recess that no one can get to.
There should be always something that you want to learn how to do, or learn how to do better. Even if all it is, is solving the mystery of where the socks go when they enter the black hole of the dryer.
