The beginning of the end (of the school year!)
So many of my friends and family are posting about graduating, as Universities are ending their school years. I keep thinking “I graduated years ago, but I keep learning.” That’s the thing, if you don’t keep learning through life, whether in an institution or not, you are doing something wrong. If all you ever learn reaffirms what you believe and nothing you learn ever challenges your beliefs, you’re also doing something wrong. Because pobody’s nerfect. I’ll get back to that.
So I got to work early this morning and it was the toughest Saturday I’ve had all year. I love my Saturday classes, both B1 level classes (well now is technically a B1+, as all three students passed their PET exams!). But for a Saturday morning my students are not only bright, cheery, and attentive, but they are genuinely nice people, who seem to have a real interest in the classes and learning. But today, I had to do mock exams for so many students and I spent my morning running around the building getting everything done. I still have to correct everything on Monday. That’s part of the end of the year stuff for the ESL teacher. So I’m not upset about it, but I’m just stating, by the time I got home I was really tired. Then it was time for lunch and instead of just heading out for my Saturday run as has become my custom I waited. Because the other part of this equation is that it is hot here now. Summer has shown up, and it’s doing it big.
Today is cooler than yesterday, but it was high 70s (about 25° C) today. The change has been pretty much overnight, and last year, the high temperatures came on earlier. The other thing is, the Sun is intense here. There isn’t much to block anything around here. Another teacher was remarking on her time in Abu Dhabi she never got a sunburn, because while it’s hot the Sun is often muted by all the dust in the air. So with the Sun out and heat up, I waited to go for my run. At first I wanted to get a longer run in, but I didn’t bring water with me and I needed to tape up the nips. I’m sweating so much in this heat the body glide is not working for very long. So back to band-aids on anything 10 miles or more.
Anyway, back to the lecture at hand, learning. Anyone who thinks they know everything is an idiot. Anyone who thinks, “I know this, so I don’t have to worry about that,” is an idiot. Anyone who thinks they have the answer, is an idiot. I don’t have any answers, I definitely don’t know everything, and I have to worry about everything I can observe. Seems daunting and depressing? It’s not. It’s impossible to know everything, even if one day we were to discover the exact origin of the Universe, I mean completely describe the Big Bang, reconcile the standard model with quantum physics, whatever the issue may be, I guarantee new questions will arise. So anyone, who today claims to know things, they’re too stupid to know that they don’t know.
Well why worry? Because we should search for answers. It’s not up to some magical sky being, it’s not up to some “Earth Mother” or any outside force. We are here now, and we have our senses and our reasoning and our language, and we can attempt to describe things. Regardless of any “ultimate truth” about gods or anything else, I think it is incumbent upon every human being to explore that which we can. But more than that, it’s incumbent upon us to care for each other, all other human beings. Not just the ones our prejudices and preconceived notions tell us are “worthy” or care and concern. Look, I worry about Donald Trump, and not because he could literally destroy the world in one of his tantrums. I worry about him, because as horrid as he is, he is still an expression of humanity. I go to sleep at night hoping I wake in the morning to news of his death, I really do, and that’s terrible of me. I’m not sure that he can be rehabilitated, and I don’t care at this point as I’ve said, he’s hurt so many people. So, while I want him removed by any means necessary, I do hope he can be healed, I hope he doesn’t do real harm to those who are around him who legitimately care for him. I honestly worry that none of the people around him actually care for him, I think that’s where his hate stems from. But, it’s a chicken and egg, because surely most of his misery stems from his own view in which all things in life are capitalistic transactions. However, I worry, I think that’s why I enjoy Steven Universe so much. I see much of myself in Steven.
Also, Donnie Pee-Party is a perfect example of someone who claims to have all the answers and has none. He claims this, yet all his ideas are the same ideas we’ve ever tried which haven’t worked. Trickle-Down Economics DOES NOT WORK. This is demonstrable. Jingoism, isolationism does not work, this is also demonstrable. His attempts as Fascism, we know fascism does not work. Class-warfare, racial hatred, racism, bigotry, these are his answers. They’re not answers at all, they are opiates. They are there to make the down-trodden, yet horribly uneducated feel like they shouldn’t worry about that feeling in the back of their heads telling them it’s the system and the system needs to change. His answers are to shit on the fringes of society, to make the slightly less outside people not rebel against the system which keeps people like him wealthy, and the vast majority of us in crushing poverty, or worse. That’s a good way to put it, Donnie’s idea is to use whatever rhetoric he needs to in order to make the “crushing poverty crowd” hate the “have it even worse crowd.” That sounds horribly cynical, but don’t let it be. Do you feel like you’re in either one of those groups, if you’re in the crushing poverty group you need to accept and love the have it even worse crowd, and not blame them for your position in life, or theirs. You need to recognize it’s systemic.
I don’t know much, but I know if we all come together and live together and learn together and love together, good things will come of that. That’s not an answer, it’s just the best idea I’ve come up with based on the best observations. I don’t blame people for their “station” in life, that’s a product of the system, regardless of any of their perceived or real character flaws. Beware of anyone who tells you someone else specifically, is to blame for your trouble, and that people who struggle are to blame for their own misery. Beware anyone who gives you answers. The other side of that is look for people who challenge you to really find the answer on your own, who advise and encourage you to learn and walk your own truth. Look for the people who are looking to build, not rule. Nobody should ever want to rule, we should want to build, create, and explore, that is what we are made to do.
In that sense I give you:
“I’m not telling you what to do, I’m just bringing up three things that are like so important to the rest of the world, that I don’t happen to find as much importance in”, and that’s the thing. He’s not telling anyone what to do, he’s just giving an idea, his idea. I don’t agree with him, I’m not Straight Edge and never have been, but I do agree with his overall concept, of finding his truth and encouraging others to find theirs. Thanks Ian.
Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!
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