Musing 16 July or relearning

I don't quite remember when I started, but it's been years. Most Sundays I post a list of "Things I've re/learned this week" on Facebook. I started it as a way to help me remember myself, but it has grown into something I do for myself AND others. There are other people who seem to find it valuable, not only my thoughts on what I've learned or relearned and our commonality, but a forum where they can write down their experiences for the week.

(As I write this, I am watching a fawn graze right next to a young buck resting on the ground. It's quite lovely and rather unusual, males rarely interact with the babies. Anyway.)

It's useful for me to think about both new things I have learned (this week I learned several new zucchini recipes) and the things I have learned again (this week I re/learned that having a spouse die has made me very nervous when my current spouse isn't 100%) and again and again.

Learning is so often relearning. We may have known something before, but rediscovering it is essentially a new piece of learning since we are different from who we were then. Now we bring a different self to the thing we are learning. My understanding of love, loss, cooking, animals, work habits, and and and, is all very different from the first time I may have learned about those things, as it should be. 

Sometimes there is intentional unlearning in between, when we learn that what we thought was so is, in fact, not. It's not always necessary (when I was a kid I learned to ride a bike. I relearned it as an adult. I don't think unlearning was necessary in there) but sometimes it's essential (unlearning racist patterns, for example). I try to notice what I need to unlearn and actively do so, then fill that space with new learning, more appropriate and hopefully better for the world we live in

All of this–learning, relearning, unlearning–is what keeps our minds agile and our hearts open, if we're lucky. The world's more vibrant when we are more open. I'm glad I can still learn. I may be gladder that I can relearn, unlearn, and learn again, that I am not so committed to my past ways of thinking and being that I reject learning about myself and the world over and over again. I hope I keep doing this until I am no longer in this body and maybe even beyond.

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