DOES "time teach all things to him who lives forever"?

DOES "time teach all things to him who lives forever"?  Og Mandino wrote that in The Greatest Salesman in the World, Scroll 1.  Although I have found MUCH wisdom in that slim volume (that's taking me almost a year to read properly), this comment does not ring true.

It would sure be nice if it did, would be reassuring to think, "If only I lived forever, I would learn all things."

The more accurate statement, it seems to me, is "If I lived forever, I COULD learn all things."

In my experience, the people who are open to learning new things will learn in however long or short a time, while those who are closed to new perspective knowledge skill would stay more or less as ignorant a thousand years down the road as they are now. 

It didn't occur to me until recently that willingness to learn new things, new ways of doing things, new ways of seeing, could be related to our willingness to let go, to experience loss, to risk the different.  Especially willingness to let go of our perception of our self, of those closest to us. 

A recent posting over on DreamReweaver talks about  a recent aha discovery that I am of two - or more - minds.  I can respond to that new awareness in several ways - accept it as an interesting new insight & let it go at that;  welcome it as a fresh perspective into how my mind apparently malfunctions & find out more about ways to make it focus more effectively; or I can accept it, use it as a spur to find out the possible whys & wherefores behind such a scatty way of processing, then taking actions to CHANGE my reading patterns so I am attentitve to what I am reading, not operating on different levels at the same time. 

Am I open to learning during the time I have in this epoch of my life?  Do I limit how much I can learn by how much I am willing to act on my discoveries?  Am I content to appreciate the new awareness without moving forward to transform it into new appreciation & habit?

It would be nice if having all the time in the world really did make us wiser, more effective-at-living beings - like the evolution of Bill Murray's character in Groundhog Day - but t'ain't necessarily so.  We can be up there in years & gaining wisdom, or we can be as limited as we were in our most vibrant years.

Not sure this is an insight that I could have tumbled to earlier in my life. Age gives the ability to see dots connecting into pictures, to see old pictures in new ways.  I don't want forever to learn everything, but am sure grateful for my here & now to learn new things, particularly (in this particular moment in time) how to focus my attention so my attention isn't divided when I read. 

Will keep you informed of my progress!