Everyday Canvas

Loving and Literacy

Prompt: Which feels more important, how much one is loved or how much one is able to love?
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Emotionally and spiritually, I am more inclined to go with how much one is able to love, but then, the degree that one is loved in childhood does affect that person’s lifelong relationships with other people and his or her ability to show and give love.

This makes me believe that one has to be loved first in order to be able to love...unless one is a Godsend saint or any other higher being.

Then, even if one hasn’t been the recipient of love in the earliest years, he or she may be able to revise and adjust his or her behavior differently. A betrayed infant can become a loving person because love can be learned, too. I think both being loved and having the ability to love cause and support each other.

Still, just because I can be starry-eyed, how much one is able to love feels more important to me.

Prompt: "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." Alvin Toffler
Your thoughts, please.

Yes, as of now, we have many illiterates with college degrees earned 40-50 years ago, and because they couldn’t keep up with the electronic revolution, they either badmouth it or, if they are lucky, their grandchildren save them. I am in that age group, too, but I try a lot to keep up with stuff and at least become a good-enough user, as I am not that lucky to have grandchildren to save me.

I think there is a formula for this: Literacy = learning - unlearning +relearning

This whole thing has to do with mental conditioning. If we think we cannot unlearn, we cannot relearn when things change. Consequently, we are subjected to become trapped in the ways of the past that limit today’s opportunities for us. Especially when everyone is doing things in the new ways, if we get stuck with the old ways, we’ll never progress or get things done.

Unlearning and relearning constitute a process that takes flight when we question everything we know and work to make things better, faster, and more practical. Then, if such a change has already happened, we’d better learn how to work with it. If we don’t keep up with the changes, we’ll fall too far behind, and it will be as if we’re using messenger pigeons instead of e-mails and other electronic messaging.