One of the great surprises of getting older is looking back & realizing that getting a high school diploma or a university degree or special letters like MSW or PhD after our name is NOT the end of our education. Not even close.
The big shocker is realizing that our education is never over. Sadly, we may shut it down without ever knowing the simple reality that there are other aspects of education that require a lifelong endeavor - seriously, TO OUR LAST DAY. There's a lot to be considered & pondered & discussed, but for now am going to focus on several interesting facets of why our education is a forever thing.
First, it takes living a considerable number of years to get a sense of perspective. I am, at 64, able to get along with some people who were always a challenge because I'm old enough to realize that the itsy bitsy bit of them that I actually know is beyond miniscule compared to what I don't. They might drive me nuts or even have wounded me deeply, but I'll never know their full back story, so will never have the necessary facts in hand to make a sound judgment. I've learned the delicate balance of withholding judgment ~and~ not putting myself in harm's way.
That balance was only achieved after many years. All the heartbreak we go through is meant to educate - let it.
Second, it's not just what I've learned with the years that helps create a greater sense of balance with my self, it's that certain insights, certain voices of sanity & reason didn't exist before crucial learning periods in my life.
There were a smattering of self-help books before 1989, the year I met & married John, but the flood gates were opened just around that time & after. The very time I first had enough balance to read listen view >and< process so much wisdom & (above all) questionings from incredibly great minds.
There were some books on aging before 2001, the year Mom was reunited with her O! Best Beloved, but soon after, books on aging & the aged started to fill the shelves at Barnes & Noble, at Borders. Is it freaky fabulous that their fresh perspectives & intriguing "What if...?"s showed up at such a massive degree immediately after I was ready to process their message? Oh, yeah!
And then there's TED. As in Technology Entertainment Design. The first TED Talk happened way back in 1984, five years before meeting John, going on 20 years before Mom died.
The first event, which founder Richard Saul Wurman foresaw as a powerful melding of tech entertainment design, astonished those who attended BUT, alas, was a financial bust, lost money.
It would be another six years before Wurman & his partner, Harry Marks, gave it another go. This time, the stars were aligned & the event was a hit. Over the coming years, the annual event became a cult happening, attracting a growing & increasingly influential audience from disciplines far beyond the original spotlighted three. Oh, and access to the talks was by invitation only. And only in one location - Monterey, CA.
Word spread - small wonder, since for many attendees it became not only the intellectual but also the emotional highlight of their year. It got raves from normally taciturn scientists & business leaders, creatives, religious icons & other thought leaders.
In 2000, media entrepreneur Chris Anderson met with the founders to discuss TED's future. In 2001 - yep, the year Mom passed from view - Chris' nonprofit took over the reins & he became TED's curator.
In 2006, the first six TED Talks were posted online. The next year, Chris & his cohorts launched the TED website, which gives me access to the greatest, most creative, beyond "out there" minds on our planet.
Boosted by its immediate success, in 2008 they opened a simulcast version of that spring's TED Conference to viewers, allowing subscribers to "attend."
Today, TED Talks are presented in locations around the world. Being a TED Talk presenter helps unknown organizations get funding, has made overnight superstars of speakers like Jill Bolte Taylor, Susan Cain, and its first break-out sensation, Sir Ken Robinson speaking on how schools kill creativity. And the talks let relative schlubs like me access it all from the comfort of my cozy computer studio, a gin & tonic in easy reach, a kitty cat curled up on my lap, with John within easy shouting distance if a stand-out point needs sharing.
Each talk silently encourages future TED presenters to practice in our minds what we'll say & how we'll get it across.
I would not be where I am at 64 if it weren't for a) meeting John in 1989, which shifted my view of my worth; b) the scores of self-help books, magazines, audio tapes, videos, cds & dvds I devoured since gaining a steady foundation under my feet; c) the piles of the same, only about aging & the aged that I've invested in since 2001; d) the countless TED talks I've watched.
I am 64.
In 2001, I was 49.
In 1989, 37.
Some could say my emotional graduate education started with my relationship with John, but don't discount every year, every contact, every moment that came before. And I don't kid myself that my education will ever be over, not to my last breath. Actually, my guess is not even then.
As a culture, Americans tend to discount the value of aging, the things that can be done not in spite of older age but because of it. We've been sold a bill of goods, been bamboozled by some very skilled bamboozlers. Too many have not only lost sight of life's prize, they don't even know it exists.
Gosh, what fun is in store for me, joining the revolution being spearheaded by the National Center for Creative Aging & other rabble rousers speaking up for the glories that are only found in aging, the treasures that are our aged friends & selves, the astonishing Whatever that stretches out before each of us!
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