Learning Makes the
World New*
My
late piano teacher not only taught lessons until she was ninety-eight, she
continued to take lessons herself well into her 70s. She once said to me, “If
it wasn’t for learning new things, I’d be ready for the urn!”
But
not everyone sees it that way. I recently acquired a new guitar student who is
in her mid-30s. On her third lesson she told me that when she had mentioned to
one of her friends that she was taking lessons, the friend said, “Aren’t you a
little old for guitar lessons?” My
student was not only annoyed, but a little perplexed. Why would someone think
that?
While there are plenty of people who wouldn’t
react that way, there do seem to be a number of people who do. For example, some
adults are a little self-conscious about taking lessons, since it is something
they associate with children. They feel that once you have gone to school,
class, or lessons, and grown up and gotten a job, you are finished with formal
education. And we do, hopefully, reach a level of proficiency or expertise that
entitles us to categorize ourselves as professionals, which simply means
someone will pay us to use what we have learned. But we should never stop
actively seeking new knowledge and skills.
If
you ask most people about this, they’ll exclaim, “Of course we’re never done
learning!” Yet many adults do not actively engage in continuing education. They
may return to college in order to learn a new profession, and perhaps advance
to a more lucrative job, but college or lessons for fun and continued growth?
We associate education largely with childhood, college, and preparation for
adulthood and job skills.
The
uncharitable explanation would be that on some level my student’s friend was
trying to sabotage her because she
wasn’t taking any lessons and maybe that made her feel inadequate. For some
people, that would be true. But I think there’s another explanation. I believe
that part of the reason many people go through a mid-life crisis is that at
some point in their forties, they think, “Is this all there is?” They have been
doing the same things and thinking the same thoughts most of their adult lives,
and they’re bored. They try to recapture their youth because they remember the
fun they had. Maybe it’s not the youth they’ve lost, but the fun. What they
fail to realize is that part of the reason it was fun was that they were
learning and growing. This helps to make the world a new place every day.
It
is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you know enough. Not egotism necessarily,
just mistaken judgement. When I was younger, I took a number of acting classes
and acted in many plays. At forty, I had been away from it for some years and
thought a beginning acting class would help me ease back into it. So I signed
up for one, and then thought, “Oh, this is dumb. I’ve studied acting before.
This’ll be old stuff, and I’ll be surrounded by adult beginners and kids.” I
almost didn’t go. Luckily, I went anyway, and not only discovered a diverse,
interesting and talented group of people, but learned a lot about acting and
about myself. And to think I almost didn’t go!
Now,
as I age, I look forward to the next few decades, if I am lucky enough to have
them, of continuing to evolve as a pianist and as a human being.
Life is about ongoing
growth. What would it be like to live in a world where there is nothing new to
learn, where we know it all? How would it feel to have no challenges? It would
be boring if we really were too old. So
no, you aren’t a little old for
guitar – or whatever – lessons. My uncle used to say, “As long as you keep
learning, you never get old.” Words to live by.
Learning
makes the world new every day.
* This essay first appeared in my book Keys to Life. https://www.amazon.com/Keys-Life-Lifes-Lessons-Learned/dp/1987434730 It is revised somewhat here for blog format.
