All education is self-education. – Louis L’Amour
It is not surprising that Louis L’Amour uttered today’s Thought. Originally from North Dakota, L’Amour had little formal schooling and spent no small amount of time wandering from place to place scrambling to earn a living as he taught himself the writing trade, often on rented typewriters. He always took great care to teach himself what he wanted to know and what he thought he should know.
All education is self-education…
It doesn’t matter how it is done, either. Some prefer to utilize the facilities of a college or university. Some prefer to do it on their own. What’s important is not the method we use, but how we go about it.
Consider this: is a college student who spends four or five years taking notes and binge drinking doing himself any good? No, of course, he isn’t. He has wasted his time and someone’s money because he will end up not doing anybody any good. By merely trying to graduate he has squandered his time. Similarly, someone who leaves school after high school isn’t doing anyone any good if all they do is come home from work, slam some brewskies and watch TV all night.
On the other hand, the student who fully utilizes a college’s resources and the autodidact who reads and lives and probably does some traveling have both put themselves in fine position to make their time on this planet serve them. To say one way is better than the other is folly because both are dependent on the effort one puts into them. One might be more profitable, but done well both lead to well-lived lives.
Really, all we have to do on this planet is live and learn. What and how much we learn is up to us, as is incorporating the lessons life tries to teach us. We can use them or dismiss them as we see fit.
In order to succeed in this world we must utilize the resources available to us, both the ones we’re born with and the ones that present themselves. Every day the choice to make our time serve us is ours.
The Thought for the Day runs regularly. Quotes are from Gaylon’s private stock.
