Learning How To Do Everything

The other day, well, to be honest, many times over the course of this last year I have thought, “It sure would be useful to know how to do that.” Whether the task was treating illness, cleaning my home, or figuring out some project for my multimedia business, I came back to the thought that I would just be better off if I knew how to do “that,” whatever “that” may be.
Mulling over this idea for the past week, I’ve come to a conclusion.

A friend of mine recently quoted his favorite line from the play Harvey. “In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.”

I recommend pleasant as well. I aim for pleasantness, for showing good hospitality. Sometimes I achieve it.

However, today is one of those days where this town feels like a gray blob, sucking the air from the galaxy, shooting down the sunshine before it has dawned. If you know me, you see my busy schedule, my constant activity, my occasional seemingly flakiness. The long list grows weary, my energy wanes, and motivation storms out the front door, slamming the hollow wood panel shut behind her…particularly on days like this. Quite often I can overcome the ache, but today I need your help.

In an endeavor to aim for the stars, to make dreams come true, and set a fun goal for myself, I’m going to try to learn everything.

That’s right.

I invite you to join me. Today is the beginning.

I’m all about attainable goals, right?! So the first step is making a list. Let’s compile a list of Things To Learn.

“But, Sara,” you may be thinking, “You can’t learn EVERYTHING.”

Eh, okay, so I don’t expect to learn how to play every instrument, excel at every topic, enjoy every sport, and maintain every profession. Surgeons are experts for a reason, and I highly respect their vocation. But aside from the gigantic assortment of variety on Things To Learn, I want to at least have some knowledge about the subject.

“What kind of time frame are you thinking?” you may also be asking. Hey, slow down. Let’s get there when we get there. I am just one person.

“What do I care?!” you may now also be pondering. Well, join me on this journey, and I will share on here so we can learn together. I’m not talking Pinterest ideas, such as How To Cook A Turkey 50 Ways or Organizing The Entire Home In 30 Days. Nah. But let’s start a new journey together, an adventure, and start living and learning.

I know a bit about poetry. I love a good poem. Reading through this poem recently, I was so inspired to actually begin this undertaking. Stick with me here, and explore Tennyson’s world:

“It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Matched with an agèd wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoyed
Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vexed the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honoured of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life. Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this grey spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

This my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle--
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and through soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toiled, and wrought, and thought
with me--

That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

~ Lord Alfred Tennyson
“Ulysses”

One does not think of the typical “stay at home mom” to be a warrior, a strong heart, a seeker, and an artist. Let’s face it; those four words are a ridiculous label for the job description. A mom is a fighter, with strong arms and fortitude; she is a teacher, a supplier of needs, a helping hand; a complicated mess of love, exhaustion, dignity, and emptiness. And this momma wants something extraordinary to happen. I will not let my shortcomings, lack of knowledge, and weak backbone overcome.

Plus, I think this will be fun.

I would love your input on ideas of Things To Learn. Please feel free to comment, contact, or email me with ideas! Ask your friends what they want to know or share a topic in which you are interested.

Here is my list so far:

1)      Be smart and pleasant simultaneously.
2)      Fly a helicopter
3)      Change the oil in the car
4)      Ride a motorcycle
5)      Shoot and maintain a gun
6)      Know the history of at least 3 paintings in a famous art museum
7)      Be able to drive a Hummer
8)      Archery
9)      The basics of riding a camel
10)     Sail a boat
11)     Knowing the history of and visiting the stops from the road trip in the movie “Elizabethtown”
12)     How to grow a tomato
13)     How to prospect gold
14)     Starting a fire without a match
15)     Morse code
16)     "Hello," "goodbye," "how are you doing," "do you speak English" in 10 languages
17)     Making a radio

Life piled on life were all too little. Now let’s get to brainstorming!