“CHANNELING” LOUIS L’AMOUR On Knowledge

“What did a father have to pass on to his children but his own personal reaction to the world?  Of what use was experience if one could not pass on at least a little of what one has learned?”

North to the Rails, p. 31

 ON KNOWLEDGE

 “The mind is a basket.  If you put nothing in, you get nothing out.”  The Walking Drum, p. 412

           The way we put knowledge into our brain is to study.  We must study real subjects and good literature.  If the subject matter is not challenging, the likelihood is that it is not providing any significant exercise to our grey matter.

In this era of nearly infinite access to immediate factual knowledge through the internet, the opportunity of self-actualization is greatly increased.  Obviously, there are layers.  One may choose to scan the superficial summaries or go to original sources and studies. There is no substitute. This is the preferred and more reliable process.

 “A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner, so if one’s life is cold and bare he can blame none but himself.  You have a chance to select some pretty elegant furnishings.”  Bendigo Shafter, p. 139

One of my favorite stories I would tell my students in a class I taught is that on the “outside”, after they are finished with school, they no longer would be competing against their peers but against all ages and experience levels.  Furthermore, no one will be asking where they went to school or their class ranking.  Rather, they will be judged by what they know and how prepared they are on that particular day and in that situation.

To that end, life is like the tortoise in the race with the hare.  Most professions take ten years to learn the foundation of your specialty.  Thereafter, changes take place and evolve, literally, daily.  We live in a very transitory period.  The race goes to he who reads and studies the evolving intricacies of the profession regularly.  To be at the top, one must work chronically and forever.  All professions are accumulated knowledge over time.

The lesson and moral, therefore, is not just to commit to a week or month of intensive study.  Rather, one must commit to a lifetime of investigation, study, practice and intellectual exploration.  When you compete all the schooling they allow, you are only now ready to go forward on a personalized and independent study program that should take you your entire lifetime.  Do that and you will be both skilled, smart and likely successful!