“The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King
I agree with White. We rise and fall on the state of our minds. This is not to say that it’s possible to learn everything. As an eight-year-old, I had a dim hope of doing that only because I had no sense of how much there was. My memory palace was situated in our elementary school library, which posed no difficulty in size or complexity. Even so, I was on the right track, if White is to be trusted.
So what’s worth learning? Languages, for certain. While I am at home in English, my French is shaky (my husband accuses me of feeling bilingual when I’ve had a glass of wine). Here is the one joke I remember in French: “Qu’est-ce que c’est un bilangue?” "Ca c’est facile! C’est quelqu’un qui parle deux langues!” “Bon. Qu’est-ce que c’est un unilangue?” “Plus facile! C’est un maudit anglais!” I intend to crown this mediocre achievement with elementary Spanish. As Jon knows, I am somewhat addicted to Spanish soap operas (thanks, Netflix). So far I can either claim to be happy, tired, hungry, thirsty or attractive or accuse you of the same. In two genders! Although none of these phrases have shown up yet, I live in hope. (And why does "yo" mean "I" rather than "you??")
It is also worth learning about our minds themselves. If I can remember, that's coming in the next post.
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King
I agree with White. We rise and fall on the state of our minds. This is not to say that it’s possible to learn everything. As an eight-year-old, I had a dim hope of doing that only because I had no sense of how much there was. My memory palace was situated in our elementary school library, which posed no difficulty in size or complexity. Even so, I was on the right track, if White is to be trusted.
So what’s worth learning? Languages, for certain. While I am at home in English, my French is shaky (my husband accuses me of feeling bilingual when I’ve had a glass of wine). Here is the one joke I remember in French: “Qu’est-ce que c’est un bilangue?” "Ca c’est facile! C’est quelqu’un qui parle deux langues!” “Bon. Qu’est-ce que c’est un unilangue?” “Plus facile! C’est un maudit anglais!” I intend to crown this mediocre achievement with elementary Spanish. As Jon knows, I am somewhat addicted to Spanish soap operas (thanks, Netflix). So far I can either claim to be happy, tired, hungry, thirsty or attractive or accuse you of the same. In two genders! Although none of these phrases have shown up yet, I live in hope. (And why does "yo" mean "I" rather than "you??")
It is also worth learning about our minds themselves. If I can remember, that's coming in the next post.
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