"listening to rap metal, turntables in her eyes...she's the girl all the bad guys want"
At this point in life, people continually ask me adult variations on "what are you going to be when you grow up?" Only this time, I'm just a few expensive years away from being "grown up", and can't wilfully answer "zookeeper" anymore. (But only because I'm disgusted with the idea of needles and maintaining a clean environment for the animals...otherwise that answer, so popular at about eight or nine years of age, would still be viable. Hee.)
Polymath. Autodidact.
Such words sum up everything I love to do, and have loved to do. After all, when I was about eight, I sometimes answered scientist or model in addition to zookeeper. When I truly started learning on my own, perhaps a year later, I would spend all day in ancient Egypt and the night with Jane Austen. Both of those words--polymath; autodidact--are fast becoming archaic and unattainable, which is a true pity. Life is meaningless, in my view, if there are no connections to be made. We either need to decide that there is something beautiful/meaningful to be constructed between Stairway to Heaven and vivisection--and then, reason why such connections are possible--or decide that there is no relation between anything. The latter is accepting chaos and, in my mind, shrugging it off. Laziness or deliberate ignorance.
Now, if only there was a way to answer the inevitable follow-up question to "what are you going to be when you grow up"--"how on earth are you going to make money doing that?!" At the current moment, though, I'm quite proud to point out I have jobs in retail, as a martial artist, and am in the process of becoming certified for personal training and medical transcription. (Randomly, I would really love to DJ.) Not that any of those have much to do with a classical education (despite the technical contradiction between autodidact and communal learning)--or paying for ones offered at places like Reed and St. John's--but it is slightly encouraging to consciously change one's mindset each day to a different task.
Who else wishes LJ had an option for "Currently Reading" in addition to your music, mood, and location?
Current Reading: The Book of the Courtier, Baldesar Castiglione, 1528.
Polymath. Autodidact.
Such words sum up everything I love to do, and have loved to do. After all, when I was about eight, I sometimes answered scientist or model in addition to zookeeper. When I truly started learning on my own, perhaps a year later, I would spend all day in ancient Egypt and the night with Jane Austen. Both of those words--polymath; autodidact--are fast becoming archaic and unattainable, which is a true pity. Life is meaningless, in my view, if there are no connections to be made. We either need to decide that there is something beautiful/meaningful to be constructed between Stairway to Heaven and vivisection--and then, reason why such connections are possible--or decide that there is no relation between anything. The latter is accepting chaos and, in my mind, shrugging it off. Laziness or deliberate ignorance.
Now, if only there was a way to answer the inevitable follow-up question to "what are you going to be when you grow up"--"how on earth are you going to make money doing that?!" At the current moment, though, I'm quite proud to point out I have jobs in retail, as a martial artist, and am in the process of becoming certified for personal training and medical transcription. (Randomly, I would really love to DJ.) Not that any of those have much to do with a classical education (despite the technical contradiction between autodidact and communal learning)--or paying for ones offered at places like Reed and St. John's--but it is slightly encouraging to consciously change one's mindset each day to a different task.
Who else wishes LJ had an option for "Currently Reading" in addition to your music, mood, and location?
Current Reading: The Book of the Courtier, Baldesar Castiglione, 1528.