Basics

What really matters? To you? To me? If we had to live without something, what would we choose to dump rather than something else? What made us choose that item as opposed to another?

Hopefully we won’t have to make those choices, ever.

I was at a public awards dinner the other night and the strangers at the table asked each other what about their hobbies. I asked what kind of reading do you like?

Everyone seemed to have a hobby and willing to talk about such interests. But several point blank told me they did not have the time to read. So they don’t. Period. I asked if this included news reports, and they answered yes. They get news from radio and TV.

Some younger folks reported they rarely read a newspaper, choosing instead to garner their news from scanning the internet.

Well, I was surprised even though I rarely read newspapers because they are costly, irregular in delivery, and more and more biased. I prefer to scan the internet for news, then pursue leads to more detailed sources and study them in order to understand the issues more completely.

Novels and non-fiction books I read copiously. My table mates did not. Some didn't read any books at all. That made me very uncomfortable. I wondered about their inner-mind chatter or dialogue they have within themselves. What are they learning, what do they do with those ideas and facts, and what are they thinking?

The internet offered this anonymous statement the other day and it sparked my attention:

            “A child who reads will be an adult who thinks.”

My thought exactly!  But what if the child doesn't read? Does that mean an adult will be shaped who doesn't think? How can that be? Of course the adult will think. It is unclear, however, how well the adult thinks if it doesn't have fresh information and logic to challenge idea formation and conclusions. What are the raw resources that adult will use to process their thinking? What discipline will they exert in this process?

In fact this whole scenario scares the hell out of me! If we think we have an educational dilemma regarding children, what must we call the ‘problem’ with adults? Education is for all of us throughout our lives. It doesn't stop with graduation. Graduation is the beginning of using our education and expanding it. That’s why it is called ‘commencement’, the beginning of a new phase of life.

A fresh beginning. New moments of life viewed with open eyes and a background of information to be expanded upon with fresh moments of experience. Reminds me of Dr. Seuss who said:

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”

It is the memory that adds up to more memory and life experience. We build our identity from these moments. We construct our person-hood and educational fabric accordingly.

Colliding with life’s realities teaches us. Stark images form. Meaning takes shape.  Nuance of precise meaning forms, too. Think of Chris Rock’s comedic line:

“Don’t be black in Florida. Don’t be a woman in Texas. Don’t be poor in America.”

Funny things to say. Jarring reality as well. Hilarious truth in a special way. But not totally true, either. In that tiny space of logic lies the humor. Serious thought, however, uncovers just how true these statements are. They are in fact a juxtaposition of our American values. These are perversions of our values. That is partly why they are funny. But the reality is sad as well.

How did we get here? How can a state like Arizona legislate laws that creates discrimination against gay people? How can Arizona get religious freedom so wrong? The same for Kansas who tried to enact similar legislation but was saved from some embarrassment by their state senate who refused to pass on the bill.

Little dislocations of logic create these disconnects. We allow distractions to bend our thinking, our perceptions. A little while later we wind up with conclusions that simply are foreign to our basic beliefs.

Does this start with reading or not reading? Does our educational process keep logic central to critical thinking? How do we gather fresh information and then process it? What are the governors in the mind that guide us along these paths?

What are the basics we get right most of the time? How does the process allow so much to go wrong at times?

The basics matter. It matters more what we do with them. And how.

February 28, 2014