Higher Education

Wouldn’t I like some.
As many of you know, my level of formal education is in fact pitiful. I left school very early, and did not look back for a long time. I have managed to become learned in a few areas as a result of intense passion for living and a huge love of books. Like I really love books. Like if I were to be exiled on a desert island and could only take one thing with me, it would be a library.
Also I make a point of hanging out with people who are way smarter than me, and parasitically leeching knowledge from them. These patchwork bits of learning have formed a sort of eclectic semi-expertise in a few subjects, which, if I stick to them, make me seem awfully brainy. When I stray, my ignorance shows like an ill-fitting petticoat. I am awfully brainy, but that is a result of choosing to think and pursue study on my own.
I do not advocate the path I have taken to everyone, but I will say that I have no regrets whatsoever about having let experience, synchronicity and spirit be my teachers thus far. I have managed to learn a great many things not taught in any school, with the added advantage of the only pressure to assimilate the knowledge coming from myself.
This has been a subject that has been on my mind of late, as I begin to reach the limits of what I can accomplish this way. I have never been career oriented particularly, in my educational interests, but there are things that I want to know how to do and things I want to understand more in depth. I am attempting to write a book, and having fair success (or was, its definitely been backburnered the last several weeks) because I have read so many. The finer nuances of storycraft are something that I only understand intuitively however, and since I began I have often felt the lack of technical knowledge. I am frequently told that it doesnt matter, but I think I may be fixing to pursue some before long, all the same. There are advantages to having a common foundation and standard of knowledge, guided and regulated by people who have studied long and hard themselves and have, it is to be hoped, a clear understanding of how best to impart that knowledge to their students. Just so there are advantages to wandering around sampling a little of everything, as I already said.
An interesting note to the statement of letting synchronicity and spirit be my teachers; they do a damn fine job. All that was written yesterday while I was at work. After work I spent some time with a friend of mine who has returned to art school to finish her degree after withdrawing 3 years ago. Without my mentioning any of what I had written to her, she did a lot of talking about school, and she said similar things. She said anything you can learn in school you can learn in a library (on a desert island, see? that would be wicked!) or from talking to people you know who know stuff, and that the reason most people go is just for the papers that prove they know. she also said "If the teacher doesnt tell you on the first day of school, 'I have a bias, and this is a game' then they're selling it to you as reality, and thats unfortunate."
Which is true, but I learned a long time ago that you dont have to buy. Every book is written from another persons bias as well, and there are plenty of crappy books out there. When I first started learning magic, one of the first and most important things I was taught was to learn to discriminate when reading any magic oriented literature, between what was truth and what was bias. I have tried to apply that everywhere. The best way to learn is to keep your eyes and mind open. To observe the real truth about anything, you have to know how to see past your own biases and expand what you are capable of accepting as part of your reality, without doing so indiscriminately. I forget who said "keep your mind open, but not so open that your brains fall out" but thats important too. There is a lot you can learn by simply taking the time to see things for what they are. And watch for messages from spirit.
This will be me getting all flaky and new age for a sec, but I really am guided toward that which I am seeking. Regularly the most uncanny coincidences lead me toward exactly what I am looking for. I say this now because after this writing and the conversation which followed, I swung by a garage sale today and got a whole pile of books several of which were concerned with analyzing the technique of writing. There was a copy of The Fountainhead, but i left that one. (hee hee) I also got a typewriter, which I have no use for, but my art school friend had said she wanted one, so thats some more groovy synchronistic happenstance.
One more thing about her, and her particular educational process.
There was a period of several days where, though classes had begun, it looked like she would not be able to pay her tuition for the semester. After attempting to get ahold of the money in every way she could think of and failing, she was feeling pretty crappy. She said to me, "what should I do?" I said, "Ask the universe for a miracle."
She rolled her eyes at me and laughed, and I shrugged and smiled. Then we ate some delicious shake 'n' bake chicken and pasta cooked by her boyfriend, which there just happened to be enough of for me even though I had shown up unannounced and uninvited, speaking of synchronictiy.
The next day she mentioned her plight to a coworker, who mentioned it to the owner of the store where she works. The owner came to her and said, "I really appreciate you as an employee, I will pay for it, now quit moping, you're bumming out the customers." And that was that. Problem solved.
Roll her eyes at me, will she? This is my best subject, folks.
I think something else that is important is knowing why you have chosen the studies you are pursuing. I am a huge commitophobe in many, many ways, and something that always bothered me was how often I just change my mind about things. I am beginning to settle down more lately, I have been somewhat disturbed to notice, but for a good long time it just did not seem I would ever be able to focus on one thing long enough. Now I begin to suspect that if I hold out till I'm done being young and irresponsible I might just be able to have a lot of fun with that.
But there are a few things that need sorting before I'm there.
I have a lot of respect and admiration for people who have the discipline to pursue the education they really want, whether for the sake of a career doing something they really care about, or for the sake of the knowledge alone, as more than one person I know has.
The best education of all is experience, and opening to experience.
Ok 3raser, check and check. Anything else you want to know about? I like this game. Guided learning, see?