when i first received david’s invitation to participate in the meme with the name “what’s your learning edge?“, i thought, “oh, but i am constantly learning. i live and breathe learning!”
and in a way, that’s true. i’m forever ferreting out new information, looking at things from a new perspective, and i always have a few books on the go. i just finished a big research project on transformative learning. so pushing my intellectual envelope, as adam puts it, is a way of life.
but hold on.
let’s push that envelope.
first of all, obviously, there is room to push my intellectual envelope even more. reading my favourite philosophy professor norman swartz’s possible worlds wouldn’t be a bad thing, especially if it were balanced out by something about buddhist logic.
right now, though, it’s not my intellectual envelope that’s crying out for pushing. it’s my psychological envelope.
manila, i wonder? letter-sized? or one of those colourful ones for greeting cards? naw, it’s my comfort envelope. i don’t even know where and how it needs pushing but i know that, just like grasper, the little crab in one of my favourite children’s books, there is some important pushing and growing just around the corner. here, grasper dares to leave his little rock, and finds himself staring at the biggest crab he’s ever seen:
“what are you looking at?” asked the huge crab.
“you! you are so s…so big!” stuttered grasper.
“of course i am!” boomed the giant. “and you will be too, after you’ve molted as many times as i have.”
“me … as big as you?” cried grapser. “but how? where i come from … under the rocks … there are other crabs who’ve molted many times – but they haven’t grown larger.”
“do they ever leave these rocks of yours?” he asked.
“no, they are afraid to,” replied grasper.
“well, then of course!” said the crab. “everyone knows a crab will only grow as large as the world he lives in, and as big as the heart inside him. you must have a big heart to live in a big world.”
what’s your learning edge? here’s a few people i’m going to tag and ask that question: geert (how about another post in english, geert?); james at finding optimism (any new learnings on depression?); vivien at inspirationbit, who always asks thought-provoking questions; emi at emi’s universe (hmm, i wonder whether you’re learning anything from your cat?), MJ at urbanista (what does this look like from the point of view of an enlightened real estate professional?) and nancy (what are we learning about money these days?)
everyone else who wants to participate in this meme, please go ahead – check the original post to see how it works. and of course, please feel free to add your thoughts on this in the comments.
(this post has been included in the carnival of life, happiness and meaning)
isabella mori
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