The Little Gold Fox

Beyond formal education, what does it mean to be a lifelong learner?

I love learning. I don’t think that is due to anything more than being extremely curious. It is almost like a hunger in my soul. I just want to know everything! My curiosity is insatiable. Even if I knew everything in this world, it still would not be enough for me! I love information, I love learning from others, and as I get older, I am starting to get this “learning from life” thing.

What vexes me the most though is how do I keep it all in my brain? And beyond keeping it in, how do I access it again? So many times, it feels like my brain has nothing, but later 5 relevant facts get shaken loose through a different prompt and I realise I know so much more than I thought I did. But I am always left wondering – where was that data when I needed it? How can I make my brain more efficient and how can I access the right knowledge at the right time?

Maybe too many facts and a focus on data can obscure the importance of simpler knowledge, a knowledge of living that is foundational, and whilst it might appear simple, can actually guide and inform a whole way of living, in a way that words, facts and bodies of knowledge can not.

Sometime I do wonder if all of my brain stuffing has simply been a distraction from reality, an escape from my pain and it has not made me any smarter in real life.

So data in, the ability to organise it, and then the right prompts to retrieve it later.