Older, but no wiser

Learning isn’t a linear process - it isn’t even unidirectional. Its possible to unlearn.

Enlightenment is like the waves on the beach. As the tide comes in the waves drive up the beach then fall back. Learning is like that. Insights come in a rush, then the intensity and immediacy are diluted and awareness slips back down the beach. But the next wave comes up a little higher and doesn’t fall back as far. A little more learning has stuck.

But the tide goes out as well as in. Learning that isn’t embedded and built upon seeps away. Unless learning is constantly tested, backed up and extended it dissipates and loses its potential. The waves drop back down the beach.

My tide is rather a long way out at the moment.