A lifelong commitment

Gentle readers, I would love to be able to tell you that we are making progress as a species, that ineptitude and goofiness are becoming things of the past and are no longer a threat to our overall well-being. I really would love to be able to tell you that, but you’d know it was a lie.
Judging from the empirical evidence, we will always be saddled with people who can’t locate their own ears in a well lit room, even with the aid of a mirror, a road map, a compass and an Indian guide. It would seem also to be our fate to forever have to deal with people who, in a pathetic attempt to make themselves sound bright, use words and phrases they can’t accurately define.
I suppose I am prejudiced in this area, but then I’ve spent most of my life learning how to communicate effectively. I’m still learning and am constantly looking for ways to improve my skills. Last week I saw a wonderful bumper sticker which I immediately added to my treasure chest of found wisdom. It said “A truly educated person never graduates.”
I couldn’t agree more. Anyone who thinks he knows enough and doesn’t need to learn anything else is on the right path for a life of uselessness.
One of the notions that I am constantly trying to hammer home to young people is that education is a matter of lifelong commitment. Many young folks are so focused on getting out of school, the very idea of making education a permanent part of their lives is repulsive to them. This fact alone should tell us something profound about the methodology of our education system.
Learning is fun, and not just because I enjoy it. My wife is never truly happy unless she’s in school. I know, I know, she’s a teacher so she should be just tickled pink all the time. But I mean in school as a student. I envy her ability to indulge this fascination as often as she does. My own continuing education, of necessity, has been more on the informal level.
At the same time, I’ve had some wonderful teachers in the 30 years since I graduated from college. I suppose I graduated. They gave me a diploma and told me not to come back. Or was it that they said they’d give me a diploma if I agreed not to come back? After 3 decades, the memory fades a bit.
But, I digress.
There was a fellow named George Kimball who was my boss when I worked in the marketing department of an international consulting firm. He taught me more than I knew there was to know about presenting an idea in such a way that it creates a favorable impression in the minds of the people listening to the presentation. And that was some very valuable information, campers.
As George once told me, “The best way to get anybody to do anything is to make them think it’s their idea.” George was a right clever fella.
Then there was a nutcase named Jim Wirski, who to this day is the advertising manager at The Times Herald in Forrest City, Arkansas. Jim gave me my first practical lessons in the industrial art known as the newspaper business. Not only is jim an experienced newspaper professional, he is also, quite possibly, the worst bass fisherman on the face of the earth. I wish I had the money Jim has spent on crank baits that ended up in the tops of trees.
More recently, the late Bill Woods and Bill Rutherford added greatly to my store of worldly knowledge. I should point out that none of these guys thought of himself as a guru. But they had usable knowledge and were willing to share it.
Nowadays there actually are people who look at me as a teacher, or even a role model. God’s mercy on these poor, deluded children. Surely there is somebody else in their lives they can look to as a paradigm. And incidentally, if you don’t know what a paradigm is, you shouldn’t be ashamed to look it up. You won’t find my picture next to it in the dictionary.