{"id":7403,"date":"2013-08-16T06:46:26","date_gmt":"2013-08-16T13:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=7403"},"modified":"2013-08-16T07:24:50","modified_gmt":"2013-08-16T14:24:50","slug":"late-life-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2013\/08\/16\/late-life-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Late Life Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Peruvian-Gentleman-11'96\"<\/a><\/h6>\n
I drew this elderly Peruvian in ’96; he’s probably Catholic, not Hindu, but the point is the same.<\/h6>\n

Many years ago I led a high school youth group through a course on comparative religions. I did it partly for me, to make up for a certain lack in my own education. And making up for such lacks, particularly in later life, is one thing I learned from the Hindus.<\/p>\n

From the Hindu perspective, four stages of life are clearly defined: Childhood, parenthood, grandparenthood, and old age. Moreover, many live multi-generationally under one roof.\u00a0The children grow up in a home that includes grandparents as well as parents.<\/p>\n

During the growing up years while the parents are busy making a living the grandparents care for the children. This isn’t altogether unfamiliar to us in the west; for some families it’s the only way. But what I found most intriguing is how in the last stage the mature adult turns himself to learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy then?” we might ask, coming from a different mindset. “Don’t we apply ourselves to general learning when young, then add some sort of specialization so we can earn a living? Are we not at that point educated<\/em>?”<\/p>\n

Too often that’s as far as it goes. Later life seems a time to just relax.<\/p>\n

That’s not how the Hindus see it, and I’m rather inspired by their take.<\/p>\n

Not only is it an issue of finally having time, but the mature mind has more hooks to hang things on. There’s a perspective born of experience, and a thirst still unsatisfied for things only touched on before.<\/p>\n

For the Hindus this is primarily for pursuits of the spirit, for things religious, which need getting to all the more as life wears on. There’s an example there.<\/p>\n

But not just for that; there are a thousand things to study. And not for the test, the motivation that so drove us when we were taking classes and just trying to get through. Rather it’s for the wonder of it all. There’s intrigue in all things, and beauty, unreachable depth, and mystery.<\/p>\n

Basically it’s a quest for understanding.<\/p>\n

And things are just interesting!<\/p>\n

It’s something I’m learning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a lesson to be learned, about learning, borrowed from other cultures that could help us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7403"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7403"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7433,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7403\/revisions\/7433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}