Once again, the fodder for this posting is coming from a recent conversation with friends. A friend, who is an Ancora imparo follower, quipped not too long ago, "You are in a lot of conversations!" Well, yes, I guess I am but I count myself lucky and I learn so much from talking with others.
The topic of a recent conversation that inspired the posting's title was "what had we all learned so far in life?" Participants in this chat were all female and ranged in age from probably fifty to close-to-seventy years of age. Most were in long-term marriages but one was divorced and single, two were widows and another woman was divorced and remarried. As one might expect, there was little pause in discussion and words flowed freely with much ensuing laughter. We laughed heartily and there was the occasional misty-eyed response.
The women's answers, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous to the subtle to the poignant, created quite the portrait of life in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Women's lives that had seen tremendous social and societal changes. Women's lives that had seen tragedy, triumph, treachery, turmoil yet tranquility. It was fascinating to listen to what everyone had to say. In fact, I listened so much that, at one point, one of the women turned to me and asked me when I was going to contribute any life-lessons. I made some glib remark that made everyone chuckle, then another woman made a comment and the group dialogue went on. I was, truthfully, thankful that I did not have to contribute any words of wisdom then. Later, and subsequently even days later, I have had the opportunity to mull over just what I would say and I realize that to narrow down my life-lessons to anything less than the length of a novel would be a disservice to myself and those that I have learned from.
I will, however, throw out the question to those who read Ancora imparo. "What have you learned in or from life?" Anything you'd like to share with me or with others? I would love to hear what you have to say. I might just learn something because, as the title of this blog translates, "still I am learning".
Ancora imparo
