Sunday, December 6, 2009

If you can read but don't feel educated

No matter what your age if you can read this or even if someone is reading this to you, you can increase your knowledge, wisdom and usefulness both to yourself, your family, your friends and everyone you know and possibly even people you haven't met yet.

Being educated doesn't mean that you have been to college or even finished in public school. All you really need is to be able to read or have someone who is reading to you.

There was something my father always said to me when I was little. He always said, "I am the master of my own fate, the Captain of my own destiny." THIS is what self knowledge and education really bring. The easiest way to educate yourself is to study whatever you are interested in. In whatever free time you have, research whatever you are most interested in, on a computer if you have access to one, in a library if you have access to one or just through reading the books in your own library or a relatives or a friends.

The more you are aware of and have knowledge of the more useful you will tend to be to your own survival and to the survival mentally and physically of all the others that you know. Though a college education is nice is it also an unaffordable luxury in most of the world.

When my oldest son was young he was dyslexic because my mother and grandmother were dyslexic too. However, my mother or grandmother never told me so I never found out until my mother told me when she was around 82.

So when my son had trouble reading and spelling I knew he was very intelligent because he started reading maps and navigating for me on long trips in my truck or car when he was only 4 or 5. So when he was having trouble reading he got interested in Dungeons and Dragons and role playing games. So I just let him buy these role playing books and he was just so interested that he taught himself to read by asking me what words meant that he spelled out to me to show me. Later, because he was interested in role playing games he got interested in computers and became a computer whiz and when he reached his twenties and went to college he got discouraged because he still had trouble in spelling and English Composition even though he would get As in C++ computer programming language and all science and math courses. When he finally got married he was 28 and he went back to college after being a computer tech during his twenties to become a nurse because, "He had watched so many relatives and friends die that he felt he wanted to fix people rather than computers." When he was tested by the college when he was about 30 we found he had an IQ of about 150. I had always known how intelligent he was but until this test and getting married had hadn't really believed in himself or what I kept telling him. But after that he has been an almost straight A honor student ever since and has joined many honor societies related to good students in a collegiate setting.

So, it is never too late to learn, even if you are 80 or 90 years old there is still time to learn to better help yourself and others.

Since anger, frustration, and confusion in people around the world is mostly found in those uneducated by others or self, a way out of anger, frustration and confusion is by educating yourself any way you can in your spare time. Sometimes, even your employers will pay for you to learn new things and to educate yourself if you make it known that you are interested in bettering yourself. But, a love of learning is the most important thing that can help you and your family move forward and up in life.

I have found that access to what you need is sometimes more important that having everything you need. There are many people out there that might be interested in mentoring you to help you in your life. Yes. You do have to be careful in choosing the right mentor but they are definitely out there. My wife and I have mentored many people including our own children and God Children and people we have met along the way. It is important to understand that mentors have to protect themselves also. So, be careful how you present yourselves to them.

However, whatever age you are you can move yourself and empower yourself to be in a position to be able to take advantage of educational and financial opportunities when they arrive. There is a saying, "All things come to he who waits." However, I have a better saying, "All things come to he or she who prepares for anything."

I was raised on the West Coast of the United States and I have relatives who have lived in the U.S. since about 1725. And also almost anyone who has relatives that have lived that long in the U.S. has a little Native American in their blood as well. I was taught always to "Prepare for the worst but hope for the best." This is why my ancestors survived when many others didn't as they settled the western United States. This also is my advice to you as you educate yourselves, "Prepare for the worst but hope for the best". For this is how you and your family will survive ANYTHING.

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