Things you learn along the way...

I was thinking about a recent shirt order from my friends at Woot.com (the "I Heart Math" with the artwork shown at the right -> ) and how even the thought of wearing a shirt like that, despite where I work and the fact that many of my co-workers would get a kick out of something like it (and might take long looks at it as they consider it a challenge to solve or perhaps find errors in ) seems so different than what I might have ever considered doing back in my much younger days.  While I enjoyed taking Geometry and Trigonometry, and even had some fun in Algebra classes (and especially enjoyed Logic, Statistics and Probability or whatever that class was called), at the same time I was one of those youngsters that felt that I'd likely NEVER use all of the stuff that I was supposed to be learning in my own daily life.  Now, many years later, well, I may not have been that far off in my predictions that I wouldn't be using all that much of my learnings and yet, well, I am, in roundabout ways, benefiting from all of that math and more.  Certainly, in my daily life, where I work with people that use higher levels of math on a daily basis I have an appreciation for the math and the 'things' that I learned in high school (if you get that musical reference) that I probably wouldn't have had if life didn't bring me to where I am and where I work at currently, and yet, well, here I am.

Those that are familiar with country music may recognize the guy in the picture to the left of this text, and if they do, they most certainly should recognize the music video that is linked to that picture (assuming my article comes through as intended).  The very talented Brad Paisley, with his song "Letter to Me" which is so appropriate and has such a deep and yet simple message in it with lyrics like: If I could write a letter to me / And send it back in time to myself at 17 / First I'd prove it's me... (seriously, check out the video, listen to the song and hear the whole message, it's powerful stuff and well worth the time it would take you to listen to and/or watch it).

Paisley's song and a few others like it point out how much we learn over time even as we don't realize that we have learned what amounted to very valuable lessons.  The younger versions of us are brash, full of confidence, lacking in fear and feeling somewhat invincible and it's not until after we break things multiple times, or fail miserably a few times along the way that we start to realize that perhaps our parents and older generations aren't as stupid as we assumed that they were.

Trying to teach the next generation and generations that follow some of the lessons we learned is a noble goal and yet there seems to, as with us and our own parents, be the reluctance to accept those teachings by those generations.  Unless people learn things for themselves oftentimes the lessons won't stick.  It is a shame that seems to be the case, but experience continues to be the best teacher and with age comes wisdom, or at least that holds true for a lot of people.

I've tried to let my own children learn their own lessons along the way, and continue to try to let them be their own selves and yet I can't help but want to see them avoid mistakes that I made.  Whether or not they'll make those mistakes, I realize that they likely will have to learn for themselves.  If I prevent them from making the mistakes they may not actually get the lesson that was there for them to benefit from (despite the costs involved).

It is a shame that humans don't come with instructions manuals, but I suppose it doesn't matter since there are plenty of guys that wouldn't open the manual or stop to ask for directions anyway.

Meanwhile, are there lessons and things you look back on now and realize were more important to you than you originally thought?