Growing up, learning was the thing to do. Learning in an unstructured way from the environs, and in a structured way from the "schools" of learning. I also learnt (sic) that the learned were role models, and were to be emulated. So I did. Some learning was conscious, the remaining just happened. I relished being good at it. The institutions conferred on me credentials to that effect. The net result is the state of learnedness I find myself in today.
Taking a critical stock of my learnedness (and, that is something I did not learn to do well), I find myself embracing the challenge of having to unlearn most of my learning. A lot of it is useless clutter, warranting spring cleaning - some memories through life that have no future utility and possibly hold only negative emotion potential, other life experiences that are quite likely obsolete and for which there is no audience. For example, the experience of landing at JFK as a 25-year-old with all resources spent on the used-up one-way airline ticket, two bags that were the only link between the past and the future, $20 in cash, and the American Dream - what relevance is it any more to anyone? Add to it the knowledge of the value of Avogadro's Number, and the covalent bonds in the benzene ring. I excelled in the art of solving trigonometric problems, only to realize later that the world is much more than a triangle! Not to mention the societal norms from multiple cultures that only convinced me of how much the abnormal me is a misfit!
I understand the clinical view of the human brain, memory and its usage at a macro level - that the human brain is capable of storing (good and bad, useful and useless) information, and may be incapable of deleting without destroying the brain cells. This is an unfortunate aspect of human physiology. The unlearning that I am pursuing may be thought of as a deconditioning (or, detoxification, to make it sound contemporary!). Granted that I may never "forget", the unlearning is to learn to "forgive"; to change my attitude from a childhood characteristic of "remember and retaliate".
In that spirit, the only permanent learning I want to acquire and preserve is the art of unlearning. So, I can empty my closet at will and exercise extreme discretion of what I put in it. And, possibly, I will put in nothing. To enjoy unpolluted emptiness ... as how I was born!
Taking a critical stock of my learnedness (and, that is something I did not learn to do well), I find myself embracing the challenge of having to unlearn most of my learning. A lot of it is useless clutter, warranting spring cleaning - some memories through life that have no future utility and possibly hold only negative emotion potential, other life experiences that are quite likely obsolete and for which there is no audience. For example, the experience of landing at JFK as a 25-year-old with all resources spent on the used-up one-way airline ticket, two bags that were the only link between the past and the future, $20 in cash, and the American Dream - what relevance is it any more to anyone? Add to it the knowledge of the value of Avogadro's Number, and the covalent bonds in the benzene ring. I excelled in the art of solving trigonometric problems, only to realize later that the world is much more than a triangle! Not to mention the societal norms from multiple cultures that only convinced me of how much the abnormal me is a misfit!
I understand the clinical view of the human brain, memory and its usage at a macro level - that the human brain is capable of storing (good and bad, useful and useless) information, and may be incapable of deleting without destroying the brain cells. This is an unfortunate aspect of human physiology. The unlearning that I am pursuing may be thought of as a deconditioning (or, detoxification, to make it sound contemporary!). Granted that I may never "forget", the unlearning is to learn to "forgive"; to change my attitude from a childhood characteristic of "remember and retaliate".
In that spirit, the only permanent learning I want to acquire and preserve is the art of unlearning. So, I can empty my closet at will and exercise extreme discretion of what I put in it. And, possibly, I will put in nothing. To enjoy unpolluted emptiness ... as how I was born!
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