[MD] random musings on ignorance and academia

[Dan Glover]

Hello everyone

I read on the order of 500 books a year. Some take me an hour, others might 
take days and even weeks. I can read nearly as fast as I turn pages but 
there are times when I like to savor the reading too. Often times I find 
myself picking up a book I've read a dozen times and reading it all over 
again and I always get something new out of it. If you visit my home you'll 
find books lying all about in fat fallen piles, not only inside the house 
but outside in the garden as that is my favorite place to read when the sun 
is shining. I don't read a book at a time like most sane people do. Instead 
I read at least a half dozen at a time.

My copy of the Bhadavad Gita has swollen remarkably since I forgot it 
outside in the rain last spring but the binding is still solid and firm. On 
the other hand, my copy of Anna Karenina has begun loosing all its pages and 
even duct tape has not held the poor old thing together, and it never even 
got wet. Unfortuately, my copy of LILA with all my notes in it is suffering 
the same fate and the pages are even falling apart. I think it is a sad 
state of affairs when a book about quality isn't a quality book. But that's 
neither here nor there...

By now you are probably wondering why I bring this up at all. I think it has 
to do with educating oneself. I owned a cleaning company for over 20 years 
and being a residentially focused business, I would visit my customers' 
homes and get a chance to see how they lived. It was the rare house that had 
books and most of those homes that had books I could look at and tell the 
books weren't being read. They sat pretty on the shelf with a newness that 
betrayed their loneliness.

But the televisions! Oh my! Big screens with surround sound and every room 
had a tv in it; sometimes even bathrooms and kitchens contained sets! Often 
times I would go into a home and the tvs would be on even though no one was 
there. I think it was for the pets to watch. Seriously. Tv isn't a terrible 
thing, mind you. I think watching old movies late at night is one of life's 
greatest pleasures. But the trash that comes out of tvs on a daily basis is 
simply astounding! And people sit there in front of the tv day after night 
watching hours of this mindless tripe and then talking about it the next 
day! As you might guess, I am excluded from those conversations.

I joined this discussion group years ago and by reading the posts and by 
acquiring and reading the books other contributors have recommended, I think 
I have received a pretty fair education. But I haven't been educated in a 
college or university so I think many times I have problems understanding 
where those who were educated are coming from. In my life my lack of formal 
education hasn't made much of a difference; I've always made decent money 
though I've also had to work physically harder than I would have if I had a 
college degree. Still, from my years of labor I am probably in better shape 
physically than most people 20 years my junior. (Stick to the point, Dan. 
Stick to the point.)

I was invited to the MOQ conference last year and even planned on going but 
then I got to thinking of the academic implications (for lack of a better 
word) surrounding the situation. Here I was, a high school drop out who 
never set foot in a college or university (other than to clean) and I had 
the gall to attend an academic conference? What would I say if someone 
talked to me? All those folks had a background that I didn't have and whats 
more, never, ever wanted. And the more I thought about it, the more I 
realized I didn't belong there even though I wanted to go in the worst of 
ways. I knew if I went that I would end up sitting by myself, like always. 
Oh, if only I still drank...

When I was a boy there was an old man who lived in our neighborhood who 
everyone called deaf and dumb. But he wasn't dumb at all. He could read and 
write and these days they'd probably give him an implant and even teach him 
to talk but back then he was silent. I remember though how we could hold a 
whole conversation without ever saying a word. I kinda miss the old guy.

Dan