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My mother says I am a piggy bank, “7assala”. She doesn’t mean that I am cheap but that I am an information piggy bank. The accusations comes from the fact that I will read all of these very useful educational books and not use most of the information in them.
I digress, I usually use the information to help others and use the tips that are directly useful for me. I do enjoy reading most books for the fun of it. I read self-help books as if they were newspapers or magazines and read encyclopedias and dictionaries just fo the joy of learning new things or words regardless of its practicality. Is that weird? I personally don’t think so. Taking into consideration that I am not a TV person so I used to have so much more time on my hands. My mother shouldn’t complain she is the one who instilled the love of reading in us, my sister is an avid reader too, she just enjoys different genres than I do. I am curious so it goes without saying that I end up looking for all kinds of weird information.
I am the kind of person who can quote caloric content of most food because I usually read the nutrition labels, I know how to work the DVD player because I read the manual and I fact check every email I get or send because I am boring like that.
“Knowledge comes
by
eyes always
open and working
hands; and
there is no
knowledge that is not
power.” Ralph Waldo EmersonWithout going into alot of background information, my mom commented on my last post that she thinks I have finally broken the piggy bank. Maybe she’s right and maybe not. I like to think that every piece of new information you come across will come handy in the future. Yes even though that with the internet today, you can search for anything, anywhere, anytime from wherever you are, it is always usually much easier if you actually know what you are looking for.
Another example is cooking shows, I have a mini addiction to watching cooking shows. I find them fascinating yet I hardly ever feel inspired enough to make whatever they are making on the spot. But I learn so much, I learn what tastes nice with what, how to make your presentation of the food awesome and what different ideas. It comes in handy when I am cooking, I hardly make a recipe exactly as I should, with the exception of baking because I’ve learned the hard way that the exact measurements usually have better results, but I do use what I learn.
My parenting style too has benifitted from all the information. I listened to every mom that “gave me advice” wether I asked for it or not, read every article I could and joined the interesting parenting communities and forums. I learned that I can disagree with some, agree with some and come up with my own mish mash of a style. It is not the perfect style, but it fits me because it is evolving and it is what I can do. I tried the “cry it out method” for sleep training but failed miserably then after some reading and searching decided that I was more of “sleep association trainer”.
Even my marriage benefits from all of the information, not just the relationship between my husband, but what I can offer as a wife. I understand what he does for a living and find it interesting. I try to read up on what he does. I can help look for information for him and be useful in different ways.
The more you learn, the less naive you become and the less vulnerable you are to life’s tricks. You don’t believe rumors so easily and you look for the truth in every thing that comes along. You learn to analyze and weight things until you can feel comfortable with what you have learned. Overall, I believe that formal education is very important, yet very lacking in our country because instead of teaching children and young people how to learn they want them to memorize information. Each one of us will walk a very different path in life, the enlightened will know how to use the tools they have acquired through their education to make that path easier, to make a u-turn when they need to and to generally be happier, more accomplished and satisfied in their lives.
My belief is that the more you know, the more ammunition you have for life and it all depends on how you use it. Maybe my mother is right and that I have broken my knowledge piggy bank and am applying more of it in life these days, but I think I have always been using the stuff, it’s just really starting to pay off now.
Interesting reading: Five Powerful Reasons to Take Action Today
Question of the Day: What have you learned in the past, that didn’t make sense then but is very useful today?
