Undone by Sudden Revelation

It all seemed so innocent.  Here at the door of an outdoor clothing store the greeter was a man likely in the early forties.

 

While my friend went to find a desired shirt I remained in conversation as the greeter seemed to want to talk about one thing or another in his life. No big deal. Some eye contact.

 

I went off to find my friend. He made a purchase. As he made his way to the door we met the greeter again. This time he addressed me directly with words and eye contact. Then in a moment of time he began to describe the recent funeral of his father and that he had spoken for about 20 minutes.

 

He then spoke the final words of his talk in a low and guttural voice. The words are lost in my mind. All I could feel was amazement. He created a sacred space at the store entry by laying bare his inner person. 

 

Both friend and I were both taken aback by the utter honesty of both word, emotion, and physical demeanor. This was a revelation and one should be wary of such surprise experiences. What will I do about this revelation in and of my self? What in me gave him permission to do this act of personal courage? That is the way it works. We each give others permission to say things to us by imperceptible signals.

 

I did courage to put into words a memorable. I believe such moments are part of building up the human experiment. More on that at a later time.

Learning Math at Khan Academy at Age 85

I never learned basic Math. I can blame it on District 16 one room school house in Redwood County with  teachers just out of high school but that it pointless. It all happened or did not happen about 80 years ago.  Now that I am alone while Joan is at Rakhma Group Home due to memory loss I need to be learning something new to improve myself in a way that would please her. Joan was an elementary school teacher and will be interested in my choice of subject matter.

 

I turned to the Khan Academy, an online school found at Khanacademy.com. This program offers education in all kinds of information fields. One can begin at the most elementary level and practice over and again as needed.  One can move onto advanced levels

 

I began with the first lessons in Math which was simple addition and subtraction. Then the program rather quickly moved me on to fractions. I began to stumble.  Perhaps this is where my math troubles began. The machine at Khan Academy has been learning about me and is now offerings basics for my level of expertise. 

 

I have been struggling with simple fractions. My learning has been labored and slow. Today the program said to itself:  "We are going to have to take this person back to the true beginnings of the mathematical mind."  It is now teaching me to always follow instructions on the page and every step. Along the way I am having to  learn basic terminology, symbols, and the order of elements in a formula. 

 

It is not likely that I would do this learning in a class where everyone else would be a child.  Although it has brought me into the open with grandson Benjamin who is a math whiz. This is my format for coming out of the closet.

 

Today the program took me back to counting objects and noting what is smaller and greater. This is not as easy as it sounds. 

 

Can I actually learn math?  Time and endurance will tell. I am feeling good about taking on a flaw in my knowledge store.  They say bringing into the open those monsters in the basement of life is healing. This is experimental aging.