A life-time-learner

I have realized I am a life-time-learner and each day I am able, I find and learn something new. Today I learned about freezing bubbles and how they change as they freeze. My friend in Australia posted photos of bubbles she blew outside where it is very cold right now. When we have summer in the US, they have winter in Australia. I enjoy reading my friend's blog posts and learning about flowers, animals, and life in a country I will never visit in person. Thanks to her, I visit virtually and she educates me about her life and her location on this earth.  

Since learning on Zoom has become a large part of my life in the past year, I am taking classes from Jane Friedman's group and the instructors are knowledgeable and interesting. The best part for me as my income doesn't grow while the expenses all around me increase, is Jane's classes cost only 25 to 30 dollars.

Visit her website and see for yourself.

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I don't know why I was blessed with this curiosity that pushes me to read and learn all I can about humanity and the life of plants, animals, and the small creatures that inhabit and improve our lives here on earth. I take joy in watching the butterflies and the hummingbirds that visit my deck garden. The squirrel that slips by Lexie's notice and finds something that interests him is fun to watch. He pays me no attention and only runs when my little canine friend finds he is there.

With all the problems I endure because technology in today's world is always changing and forcing me to learn more or forcing me to throw up my hands in defeat, I am so grateful that I can sit at home and converse with like-minded people around the world. I can see my great-nephew's baby who is less than a year old and lives miles and miles away from me. All I have to do is turn on my computer. 

If I want to visit Ireland, I go to my television set and search for Ireland. Soon I am traveling the roads, visiting the pubs, and meeting the people who live there.

Although I did not enjoy most of the classes I took in college, I did enjoy history. Now I can learn all I want to know about the world's history while sitting in my own home. Some might wonder why do I want to know so much about things that don't pertain to my life or that will not benefit me in some way. My family history is amazing to me. My ancestors made a journey from far over the ocean to reach this land. They came to find freedom and opportunity back when the native inhabitants, Native Americans, lived where we live today. I like to follow the families as they moved from Jamestown down to North Carolina and finally into Georgia and north Florida. I want to know why they moved south and where did they settle. Why did I happen to be born in Albany, Georgia instead of North Carolina or Florida?

A map of the Old Wagon Road. In the mid-1700s European colonists, many arriving from ships in or near Philadelphia, began traveling south along the trail in search of land for new homes.

 You can have knowledge without wisdom, but you can’t have wisdom without knowledge. 

 If we all learned as much as we could, it would help us to live in this world of today where ignorance of the past has been a painful lesson many have had to learn the hard way. 

I hear from others how much they despise the idea of taking down statues of Confederate Generals. "Why are they suddenly so offensive?"  A friend asks in disgust. 

Because we were not taught the real impact of our history on all the people living here, we don't know that these statues have not suddenly become offensive. They have been symbols of slavery and the infringement of rights on a whole culture of Americans ever since politicians embraced them in the Jim Crow days as a way to keep black people "in their place."

We should keep learning and we should keep an open mind about what is happening to others, even those we don't know personally or we have avoided most of our lives. Children should be taught about our past, the good and the bad. As a white child growing up in the deep south, I learned nothing about slavery except Uncle Remus stories where everyone was happy. As a young person who fell in love with Gone with the Wind, I wanted to believe that all black people lived happily with their white owners. Because I didn't know of the racial hatred or prejudice that abounds in this country, I was ignorant until I was an adult and learned the truth. 

I will continue to learn and reflect on my life as long as my mind is working properly. I will continue to teach others, to share my wisdom gained over the many years of my life. I was told by a friend recently that I am the most mission-driven person he knows. 

My mission is to learn, to love, and to share in hopes of making this world a better place. 

My readers, my friends, I hope your world is filled with light, hope and good health in the coming week. I wonder what you will learn this week that makes you a better person or that helps someone be a better person. Let me hear from you, please.