I was approached by a gentleman outside the Law School that I call home (for the next three years at least) and was asked a very interesting question that I have been thinking about since I heard it nigh a fortnight ago. The question went like this:

                “Hello Mr. Keeter, how was your day? Fantastic? Great! So what are you currently learning right now?”

   The question of what I was learning was of a different context than what was the obvious (standing outside of the law building, it is obvious that I am learning law). This gentleman wanted to know what I was doing to keep the learning fresh, to keep my mind active, and to keep the blade sharp.

    I had recently watched “Phenomenon” on TV (the movie with John Travolta) and was reminded what it was like to be hungry for all types of information and knowledge. Think of the deep connections that his brain had made between everything from a bicycle to a forlorn love affair. The “six degrees of Kevin Bacon” is like the dendrites in one’s mind, always making connections to each other and increasing the flow and context of every conversation and learned experience. What if I had the capacity to learn like John Travolta in “Phenomenon”? What would I learn, where would I go, and what would I do with this knowledge?

    What is learning though? Is it something that has been done unto us from the age of 5, or is it something that we should be lucky to partake in? Now that I am an adult I understand that learning is a lucky benefit and I should be grateful that I can continue my education, for it will be the thing that will keep me young and alive for years to come. When children go to school and are taught I believe that it is a negative feeling because they are learning in a way that isn’t one of their key learning competencies. Personally, I am a visual learner and I need to draw everything out to see how the subject works and connects, but what if I were a physical learner, then what would I do?

   Learning is paramount, and it must be at the heart of everything I do. The foundation, the bedrock to who I am is learning.