7 1/2 lifelong learning habits (Activity 3)

Title provided by the folks wanting me to learn something.



Easiest part of learning: PLAY!

Perhaps because it was instilled in me from an early age. Our preschool (scary that I can remember that far back) was all about play. We had puppets, sandtables, watertables, typewriters to tear apart, a small shop area for wood, nails and hammers. I am still playing. When not at work I spend countless hours volunteering at church (they're about ready to give me run of the place or kick me out, can't decide). Most of these jobs aren't terribly exciting, but they give a sense of purpose and allow time for casual conversation that's lacking in the usual formalities.



Hardest part of learning: Goals...

I think this is because the easiest part of learning, for me, is play. I don't want to limit myself by setting goals for that play. I taught myself to play guitar, but that doesn't mean that I want to learn picking or any radically difficult chords. I learned lots of new chords just by looking for songs I wanted to play, but I started with easy stuff. Three chords got me a long ways into the Kingston Trio book and I can play with The Group on our camping trips and get-togethers. Those same three chords, plus a few others have served me well in playing some of my favorite church songs. I'm not brave enough to play them as a music leader, but I trade on my percussion skills instead.

One of the clearest goals I remember having was wanting to be an altar server at our church. For those who don't know what this is, basically you are an assistant to the priest during Mass. I had wanted to do this when I was young, but you had to be a certain age at the Catholic school I attended. We moved before I was old enough. Later in high school it struck me again, but we attended church so far away it was difficult to get there on time. Also, the whole family had to come early.

Finally in college I asked the priest if I could serve. This took me several months as I was learning the lay of the land and felt out of place disturbing our priest to ask for training. He was very helpful and though I was very nervous the first time and did a few things wrong I was gently corrected. Later I trained others in these tasks and have enjoyed watching them grow.

I enjoyed training at my current church this past fall when I spent many hours writing and rewriting the guidelines. Two dozen bright-eyed kids came for training and are doing very well. New and exciting things invade each weekend: incense and bells for special services, sprinklings of holy water and extra blessings. And the kids thought my manual was difficult, ha! I didn't include the incense instructions in my original draft.

The current goal is to get Sunday out of Saturday night's onslaught. Lots of kids going back to school turned in their books yesterday. Thus we have many full carts to order and shelve. Back to work!