Is it just computer nerds and me, or are there others afraid of putting a space in the file name for fear that it won’t save? Just me, huh. Thought so. Another thing, I have never felt comfortable sitting at a computer. It’s like no matter what I do I can’t position myself very well for typing.
So today, the reigning teacher at my school, who is only a part-time worker, but has enough power to teach whatever class he wants and tell everyone how to do their job, dropped some little tidbit of his “wisdom” on me. He had asked me whether I wrote anything about my experiences in Japan, and I told him that I did in fact write some of the more interesting occurrences down for my own records. And so he said, “You must be interested in different cultures. The more different the better.”
“Well I like some cultures.”
“These kinds of people never experience culture shock, those who like different things,” he said, talking about himself, who had never spent more than two weeks in any one country.
“Well, I think everyone experiences at least some culture shock. What if you went to a cannibalistic society, for example. It would be hard to get used to eating other people, I think.”
At this, he just smiled and left. He doesn’t like to hear my opinion, but at least this time it seemed as though he actually heard it. He usually goes on talking as though I haven’t said anything. His idea of wisdom is telling other people the golden truths he has discovered in his long life. But I’ve found that wisdom is more acknowledging what you don’t know, rather than what you do. Like the Buddhists.
My poor teacher just likes to insist his ideas on everyone, like a fascist. But I’ve found it’s usually the most unwise people that insist their ideas so fervently or argue, specifically because they don’t completely understand what they’re saying, so they hope that if the bash the idea enough, it will crack open and they’ll see the light. That’s why I argue, anyway. A wise man just smiles at you when you get angry about something.
The wisest thing I think I ever heard was from my dad, who said one day, “I keep thinking, there’s some bit of wisdom I should drop on you kids, but everything I can think of you already know, so I can’t really tell you anything.” I think he meant that the idea of what we all want out of life is so simple, but it’s finding the strength to do whatever it is you think you should that makes it so complicated.