Month: May 2015

When I was in my late thirties I drove a little pick-up truck. On the back I had a Practice Random Acts of Caring and Kindness sticker. One day I was at a full-service gas station and a young man in his late teens who was filling my tank said, “I like your sticker but I don’t understand why you would have the sticker and also carry a big stick in the cab of your truck?”

There is a saying, “Out of the mouths of babes” meaning profound wisdom does not only come with age. His observation was a soul opener. He was right. How could I profess to be a supporter of peace and kindness and carry a big stick as if I was looking for trouble? I reached in, took the stick out and put it into the trash can.

I was reminded of my big stick and bumper sticker experience recently. I was on an LA City Bus when a man wearing a cross and carrying a Bible started an argument with another man over a seat. I thought to myself, “What an amazing world we will create when each of us who professes to be a faithful follower of an enlightened messenger of peace actually behaves aligned with the kind, respectful, tolerant, and loving tenants of our faiths.”

Someone once responded to one of my posts on Facebook –  the only education really worth having is that of personal experience. Reading books and going to school was not important to him.

While the personal experience each of us receives from the university of life and school of hard knocks is useful, so is the experience of others shared through books, periodicals, articles, and in educational settings, whether those are formal or casual.

We do ourselves a HUGE disservice by thinking we know all there is to know or  that we will personally experience everything in life necessary for us to make the best decisions that impact us and other people in the most positive ways possible.  To some ignorance may be bliss, but I’ve found it is continuing to learn that expands the boundaries of what we think we know. If we do not persistently seek knowledge we become a prisoner of our own egocentric mind and the thoughts it creates. And, simply because we think something does not mean it is real or true.

At one time the world was thought to be flat, our universe was the only one around, there was no electricity, running water in homes, internet, cell phones, vaccinations against disease, etc. I am grateful our ancestors did not settle for only what they thought in their own minds to be true or depend on just their own personal experience.

Intelligence is not about the degrees we hold but the willingness to admit we do not know everything and to seek knowledge. For me the smartest people are those with an eagerness to learn from their experiences and those of others. I for one enjoy learning from the experience of others which helps me grow so I can live my best life and encourage others to do the same.