Beginning with the inception of my blog in 2011, the post published on my birthday has been devoted to a few things I've learned over the previous year. I've particularly enjoyed those times when a reader has joined me, birthday aside. When was the last time you took inventory of some key things you've recently learned? Why not join me and do so today?
* During this year it dawned on me that, for better or worse, I rarely use any of my three abiding passions - music, literature, film - for pure entertainment. Especially since stopping full time work in 2010, most of my listening, nearly all of my reading, and even the majority of my film viewing are aimed at educating myself, however marginally. If a song, a book, or a film is merely distracting, my inclination is to switch to something that could help me become a better musician, a more discerning reader, a more educated cinephile. Learning this about myself makes me neither happy nor unhappy. It is simply who I've become.
* Given the challenges Covid-19 inflicted on all of us in 2020, recognizing how precious my family and friends are to me was a powerful, if obvious, key learning this year.
* I don't plan to give up on long form writing. But the more I read and write, each time I cross paths with a new excellent short form writer - essayist, songwriter, columnist - the closer I get to being happy with what I'm able to do with the short form. This may not technically be a learning from this past year. But the "getting closer to being happy" part is new, so I'm counting it.
At the risk of being redundant, it's a lot more fun when one of you joins in on posts like this. I'm not above begging. I began this blog with the sincere hope that I'd learn about some of you. Please?
I find your comment about not reading for entertainment interesting. (I can relate more to reading than the other two you mention.) For me reading can be both entertaining and educating. And even if it is just "entertaining" I find that enjoyable. I love both learning and escaping into an interesting plot, especially this year during the pandemic!
ReplyDeleteInes; Thanks for the comment. The education vs. entertainment piece with respect to reading likely has as much to do with my desire to become a better writer as anything else. It's not as though I'm never entertained by a book; quite the contrary. But, if that's all that is happening when I'm reading, i.e. I don't feel like I'm being educated whether about a subject or how to become a better writer, I am quite likely to toss any book that is simply entertaining and/or distracting me.
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